It was but a year ago that veteran rappers De La Soul seemed out of touch, and past their prime. Their 2000 release Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump tried to sound polished and club-ready. It came off as a mediocre attempt from a group of thirtysomething rappers to compete in a world that’s swimming in the likes of Jay-Z and Timbaland.
Their latest effort, AOI: Bionix, begins with the slogan “Better, stronger, faster,” which is usually a bad sign, the equivalent of a rapper constantly reminding you that he’s “back.” This is an exception to the rule. Bionix is their best album in years, and their most powerful lyrical effort to date. Musically, it picks up where Mosaic Thump left off, favoring slicker production techniques and straight-ahead rhythms. It’s a dramatic reinvention of their sound, and a gigantic, fluorescent testament to their relevance. This time around, they let the songs breathe, and while their style is smoother, it’s as diverse as ever. “Bionix” has a monstrous piano crunch, “Watch Out” is funk seen through a Caribbean lens, and “Held Down” is a lavishly arranged masterpiece, a jazz-inflected loop coupled with the soaring voices of a gospel choir.
But it’s the lyrics that make the record a classic. MCs Posdnous, Dave and Maseo have never been sharper, with Pos spouting off this thoughtful, impassioned diatribe on religion in “Held Down”: “when I’m watchin’ the news, and my daughter walks in and choose to ask, ‘Why were all those people on the floor sleepin, covered in red?’ I told her that they were lookin for God, but found religion instead.”
The heartfelt, brutally honest track “Trying People” closes out Bionix, and it’s the most mature, introspective and poignant piece that the group has ever done. Featuring a call and response chorus where a group of children assure the rappers that they “wanna try harder,” the song touches on the trials and tribulations of parenting, commitment, disaffected youth, and life in general. It’s proof that De La Soul is a group of bonafide hip-hop sages.
Ever since their watershed debut 3 Feet High And Rising made the group stars back in 1989, they’ve always experimented with their sound, never content to sit back and recreate the happy-go-lucky whimsy that made them so popular. It’s this artistic integrity that has kept them together for such a long time, in a genre that’s notorious for one-hit wonders and early burnouts (in rap years, they’ve had a 50-year career). When you compare Bionix to their first album, you’ll see a group that has not only grown musically; they have grown up. On Bionix, you can feel their hard-earned wisdom, even in party songs like “Baby Phat.” It’s a record with crow’s feet, filled with weariness, hope, pride and love. De La Soul is always evolving, and coming up with new ways to make you think, speak, and bob your head.
Appeared in Issue Two, 2002, of Traffic East.