de la soul: art official intelligence II: bionix

De La Soul entered hip-hop like nothing else before, sampling French language records and Hall and Oates, rapping about potholes and plugs, and generally acting bizarre. Their second album, De La Soul Is Dead, entered further depths of weirdness, blasting all the success of the prior album, pop hip-hop in general, and even themselves, through a running commentary on the album by three morons, mainly consisting of "this shiz-nit is kinda wid-dack!" Even when the results were off-base, De La was fun to listen to because the band made songs like no one else. But unfortunately, with album number six, AOI: Bionix, the process begun with 1996's Stakes Is High is complete: De La Soul sounds like everyone else.

Part two of the three-part Art Official Intelligence series, Bionix often sounds like a B-sides collection to Mosaic Thump, following the same formula of simple bass-heavy tracks, R&B hooks, and plenty of guest artists, with wildly mixed results. As a single, the thumping, synthesizer-heavy "What We Do (For Love)" is an old-school track perfectly crafted for guest Slick Rick as emcees Posdnuos and Dave (nee Trugoy) take him "searching for ho-sery."

"Baby Phat," a hilarious homage to women with an extra pound or two, sparkles with the cooing voice of R&B newcomer Elizabeth "Yummy" Bingham and lines like "skip the salad, girl, let's get to the menu" and "you make the big panties look like little panties." And though a point/counterpoint discussion of whether to smoke or not to smoke weed doesn't make as good a song as hoped, "Peer Pressure" is definitely a great place to stick B-Real of Cypress Hill.

And herein lies the problem of the album: rather than making songs for themselves, De La Soul is making songs for its guests, even when they're out of place (overblown singer Glenn Lewis, on the overwrought God meditation "Am I Worth You?") or just out of talent (annoying rap group Shell Council on "Pawn Star," easily the worst song on the album). Bingham even half-spoils her debut with the saccharine "Special," generic R&B from the group that complained about "R&B bitches over bullshit tracks."

Hip-hop can get much worse than Bionix, but even at its best moments, this incarnation of De La Soul sounds glossy, predictable, and complacent. Simply put, De La Soul, if the mission was simply to prove you could pretend to be mainstream, congratulations. Just let me know when you're through playing dress-up. (Tommy Boy)

—Josh Drimmer

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