Sometimes it's complex to research the background of a hip-hop artist, especially when a rapper is born in a country other than the United States, nevertheless, in this case there's an exhaustive biography regarding Bruno Beausir, boy who chose as his stage name one of the monikers that fans consider among the worst in the history of French hip-hop, Doc Gynéco.
Growing up in Paris, he approached hip-hop through friends, at the beginning of the nineties he joined the collective of the Minister AMER group, then in 1994 he became part of the actual group by participating in a song from their second album "95200" and participating in 1995 in "Sacrifice de poulets", controversial song against the police which is included in the soundtrack of Kassovitz's controversial film "La haine" and which decrees the end of Minister AMER. During the recording of the group's second album, Doc Gynéco remains in the studio to start recording his own songs with the help of the group's producer Mariano Beuve. Once a tape was completed, the boy send it to various labels and in 1994 he obtains a contract with Virgin Records.
In the mid-nineties, French hip-hop was based on the drum machine. The boy instead decides to base his album on live instrumentation and flies to Los Angeles to complete the album with professional musicians and to learn how to do this rap thing properly from the best, stealing Dre's musical style for production and stealing Snoop Dogg's style for rapping.
The production is performed by Ken Kessie, who also takes care of the mixing together with Bernie Grundman, while the live instrumentation is provided by Nathaniel Phillips and James Wirrick on bass, Ken Kessie, Michael Notfleet, Keith Lewis, Paul Taylor, Ronnie King and James Wirrick on keyboards and synthesizers, Micael Sene and Marlon McClain on electric guitar, Luis Conte and Ken Kessie on drums, Nick Lane on trombone, Greg Adams on trumpet and Gary Herbig on flute and sax. The guests are Passi, Atlantique, El Maestro, Karl & Said, Assia, Jeanie Tracy, Nabila Mokeddem and also Nancy Fletcher, who offers background vocals for the songs "Nirvana", "Né ici" and "Les filles du moove".
Beausir mixes pop, soul, funk, g-funk derived from the Dr. Dre school, and decides to recite his own lyrics with a performance that has little to do with rapping and is mostly melodic, sung, spoken, while his lyrics concern urban themes with humorous, sarcastic, provocative and popular references, much boasting, many vicious excerpts. Lyrically, this record is one of the worst in the history of French hip-hop, even though some publications want you to believe otherwise, it's embarrassing. He acts effortlessly, in a casual, forcefully relaxed way. There are only 2 samples in the whole album, unusual at the time for a hip-hop record.
The artist aims for mainstream success and finds it with the lead single ("Viens voir le Docteur"), h'is also denounced due to anti-Semitism in his lyrics and some music videos aren't broadcast sometimes. While on TV he struggles to find his way, on the radio he has no obstacles and several songs gain a great following among the public: the album therefore becomes one of the biggest successes of rap in French. The budget for the album is 1 million francs, an almost record for the period, but the album sells over 750 thousand copies and is certified double platinum two years after its release.
In the following decades Beausir lost credibility after having supported right-wing parties, turned his back on the suburbs, insulted almost the entire French rap scene, released disgusting music, but even before then his credibility had to be zero after creating this sexual mainstream record. The project suffers in comparison to the hip-hop made on the other side of the Atlantic and even in comparison to the other records released in France. This debut album holds up quite nicely for twenty minutes with the suicidal track "Nirvana" and the football track "Passement de jambes" (where the boy tries to drop as many names as possible, dedicating himself especially to the former footballers of OM, without neglecting Pelé and Maradona and even going as far as blasphemy given that the name Mark Lenders also comes out of his mouth), then the album collapses under infinite sexual choices that may or may not please depending on the listener.
This guy refers to himself as "The Kaiser of rap" and that's a pretty accurate metaphor if Kaiser means Carlos Henrique Raposo instead of the better-known Beckenbauer. 3/10.
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