Matthieu Balanca aka Gérard Baste is a French rapper and TV host. At the age of 14, he came across hip-hop graffiti and bought cassettes of Run DMC and the Beastie Boys. He then became a graffiti artist under the signature "Baste". While still in high school, he founded the group Svinkels with Nikus and Xanax. The Rabelaisian style of songs such as "Le Svink' c'est chic" and "Cereal Killer" (composed by Ludovic Bource, who later went on to score the film The Artist) and their party themes appealed to a rock audience, much to the regret of these admirers of Public Enemy. After Svinkels split up in 2009, Gérard Baste collaborated with Michaël Youn, writing the track "Le Frunkp" with Faf La Rage, taken from the soundtrack of the film La Beuze, then the tracks "Fous ta cagoule" and "Mauvaise foi nocturne" from the Fatal Bazooka album. In 2015, he released his first solo album soberly titled Dans Mon Slip - Volume 1.
