AOI:Bionix\nDe La Soul\nTommyboy\nSelf-styled and trend defiant, De La Soul continues to maintain diversity in the hip-hop landscape. It's latest album, AOI: Bionix, is the second of three Art Official Intelligence discs. Triple disc sets are ambitious attempts for any group, but by releasing each CD separately, De La Soul lets them have souls of their own. \nBionix paints its picture with dark pastels. It is mellow, rich and thoughtful but with enough comic relief to keep it entertaining. It starts with a classic east coast intro laced with soulful voices and a "Jingle Bells"-like sample. From that point you can tell that De La wants you to stay sharp and pay attention to their own brand of quirkiness.\nNext, Baby Phat, Bionix's first single, shows De La's continued push for self-awareness, which has been prevalent in every De La disc since Me, Myself and I. "Your shape is not what I date" and "Every woman ain't a video chick/ Or run way model anorexic" exemplify the song. They rap, "Let me compliment your size/because it's nothing but a little baby fat." This is the antithesis of body image in popular culture. Supporting a woman's right to be her natural size is not new, but De La definitely makes the comments seem genuine. The music video for this song is also a must see because it shows their vision of a big girl without exploiting them.\n"Trying People" is the message song on the disc. Voiceovers throughout the disc claim that the song is amazing, but it's just a positive message. It wants people to try to help themselves and those around them. It also talks about the difficulties of success, mainly that successful people are role models whether they like it or not. \nA common element that taints the success is from the people left behind. "When I came back around the way/old friends gave me dead eyes and fake smiles/we were supposed to rid the world of danger." They seem to wonder whether they abandoned their friends or whether their friends did not try hard enough. The song can make you think if you are willing to listen. The rest of the disc contains some locker room sex humor helped by Slick Rick, and the dope humor or "Ghost Weed" continued from the first disc. It even parodies our overdose of patriotism by promoting American grown weed.\nOverall, this disc is solid. It balances the weight of the self-awareness and resistance to being overly influenced by pop culture with marijuana and sex jokes. It has just enough guest appearances liven things up. Most importantly, it continues the first disc well enough to maintain its position as part of a three-disc set.\n
