De La Soul
AOI: Bionix
Tommy Boy Music
They old saying goes, “One becomes a conservative once they have a mortgage,” and sticking to the liberal ideals that one had in college is difficult once you get older. Bills mount up, the kids become expensive investments and eventually one would like to have steak for dinner.
De La Soul’s relationship with their own extended family and the larger hip-hop community is no different. Following their old school sensibilities has become somewhat of a costly endeavor in this day of “bling bling” and Neptune-friendly synthesized beats. The “stakes are high” and somebody has to pay the rent, which has naturally pushed the Long Island-based trio to produce a record that is more widely accessible than past, albeit groundbreaking, efforts.
The first in the Art Official Intelligence (AOI) trilogy, Mosiac Thump, floored De La’s loyal fan base with its overwhelming number of party jams (for a De La album at least). However, the recent installment, Bionix, manages to bring the group closer to their historically more mature voice and produce an album that reflects what they really are: thirty-something B-Boys.
With something for the ladies, as well as the nerdy backpacking crowd that now pump Three Feet High and Rising at their ten-year high school reunions, Bionix is diverse in subject matter and chock full of gems that will impress even their harshest critics. “Baby Phat” is a lyrical shot at a society that rewards celery stick-eating models, and “Simply” manages to splice and cut Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmas” into an upbeat imitation of, and dedication to, Nice & Smooth. While both tracks would have been absent on past work in the De La Soul catalog, they fit in comfortably on Bionix, reflecting the group’s new outlook and blueprint for once again producing stellar hip-hop albums.
“Held Down,” a sobering track featuring the ubiquitous gospel/rap hook legend Cee-Lo crooning throughout the song, finds Pos lamenting over murder and the mass media’s obsession with it. “When I’m watching the news, and my daughter walks in/ And chooses to ask, ‘Why were all those on the floor, sleepin’, covered in red?’/ I told her that they were lookin’ for God, but found religion instead,” poignantly raps the legendary bald emcee on the self-produced track. Appropriate couplings like this keep the monotony to a minimum, especially on the Megahertz-produced “What We Do (For Love),” featuring a relatively raunchy Slick Rick.
The hip-hop legends finish off the record strong with “Trying People,” a reflective track about the members’ own attempts at self-improvement. Apparent that this is a theme in all aspects of their lives, Dave, Pos and Maseo show that they truly have tried to diversify their music to have the broadest public appeal, as well as polish the lyrical guns that have brought them so much critical acclaim. A few bleak points do appear throughout, namely the out-of-nowhere track “Pawn Star” and less-than-entertaining “Rev. Do Good” skits. However, a soulful, poetic and well-constructed mix of guest appearances, beats, samples and hidden surprises still rise to the top, and Bionix proves that the new commercial-friendly and profitable De La Soul Lite can be quite a refreshing beverage.
