Emerging three years ago with the platinum single "Pony" and a voice drenched in longing, Ginuwine has quickly positioned himself as R&B's all-purpose lover man. One might think he's being savvy, cleaving a middle path between the bad boy strut of, say, DeVante Swing, and the squeaky-clean earnestness of R. Kelly. But to hear Ginuwine tell it, he's just being . . . well, genuine. "That's me," he says. "You're not supposed to be one way on camera and another way in real life. I don't consider myself soft. I always been a regular dude. So that's what comes across."

For a singer interested in coming across, it doesn't hurt to have prolific beat-maker Timbaland producing your records. Backed by Tim's tight trademark rhythms on 100% Ginuwine, the twenty-four-year-old crooner ranges from insistent funk on "What's So Different?" to the tender balladry of "So Anxious." Ginuwine called from SIR Studios in Los Angeles to discuss success, sex and soul.

How did you get involved in music, and when did you realize you had such a great voice?

I don't consider myself having a real great voice. But people always told me, "You can dance, man," and when I started singing, "You can sing." So I tried to mock Michael Jackson, Prince and Bobby Brown. I tried to get in talent shows starting when I was about seven. I knew how to get on the stage and perform. That was a natural talent that I had, but I had to really work on the singing and the dancing. Once I did that, it all came together for me. I met Devante Swing from JoDeCi and moved up to New York. We finally landed a deal with Sony.

Who came up with the name Ginuwine and what does it mean to you?

I came up with it back in '90. I needed a name that represented me as an artist and as a person. What I do is try to give you the real. It basically stands for one of a kind, the real, authentic, you know what I'm sayin'?

Do you intentionally write radio hits?

The only way that you can be heard is if you write radio-friendly songs. A lot of rappers can do well without radio play, but I'm not a rapper. R&B singers need the radio. You can't just write a song so it can played on the radio, but you can write a song about something that really happened to you.

With so many kids coming out to your shows, are you comfortable singing so honestly about sex?

That's a very touchy subject. I write about how I feel, and I can't be faulted for that. My name is Ginuwine. If I wasn't singing about sex, kids are gonna learn about it some way. People always try to blame stuff on artists and rappers, but believe me, these kids know more [than] you think they know. I got a son. He's eight. He was outside playin' basketball one day and I was listenin' to him, but he didn't know it. He don't talk to me the way he was talkin' out there, or even in my presence. But once you leave a kid and he goes to school, that's another life. You know how we were when we were kids. We used to be bad, too. So I don't really focus on, 'I don't want no kids to listen to this.' That's their parents' job. As long as I'm not raunchy or overdoing it, it's okay . . . You can tell them that you're gonna have sex. But tell them that you're gonna have protected sex. That's what I'm sayin'.

Your roots are so purely soul. Do you ever consider doing more straight soul music?

Yeah, the next album we're gonna do more songs like [the cover of Michael Jackson's "She's Out of My Life"]. I wanna reach another audience. We'll still talk about the same things, but in an even milder way. I'm tryin' to go to that next level. The next level for me is to sit back and croon. The last album I didn't really croon except for one song, "Only When You're Lonely." This album I'm croonin' on a lot of songs.

Looking at the back cover of your record, you're pretty built. How much do you work out?

I dance a lot and I do four hundred push-ups and four hundred sit-ups a day. I don't do no Tae-Bo. I don't go to no gym. I do that right in my hotel room, and it helps keep me in shape. I've slacked off a couple a times, but I'm back on track now. I make it a point to get on up in the mornin', do my push-ups do my sit-ups, and then go back to sleep if I want to.

Was there a point in your life when you realized, "oh my god, I'm a star?"

It still hasn't happened. I still go everywhere by myself. I don't like having a lot of people around me. I don't have no bodyguards. I know it can all be taken away tomorrow so I don't think I'm better than anybody else just cause I can sing and dance.

What have you got planned for the rest of '99?

Go on tour. Try to make a label so I can bring out other groups. Finish writing a movie that I started. It's about a youth selling drugs, but he doesn't want to -- he wants to sing. But he's gettin' told it ain't gonna happen. So he goes deeper into the drug game. The same day that he makes his connection with the big drug lord, he gets discovered by someone up in New York. So now he's got to make a choice. And the drug lord is like, "Nah, you can't leave now. You done worked your way up." A lot happens after that. It's real.

Anything autobiographical in there?

I won't say. [laughs]

RODD MCLEOD
(April 30, 1999)