Posdnuos, Dave and Maseo are so far AHEAD of the hip-hop herd that if their pioneering 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising, were released today, it would revolutionize hip-hop all over again. They're so far ahead of the curve that no one — from the thugs to the backpack intelligentsia and everyone in between — can write them off, despite the fact that they peaked with their first album and haven't had a bona fide hit in years. They're so far ahead that they can spend their sixth LP, AOI: Bionix, hating the players, playing the game and gaming the haters, and still deliver one of 2001's best records.

On the hand-clapping, two-stepping title track, Posdnuos raps, "Unlike these underground MCs who rock for heads/We include the throat, chest, arms and legs." They also include the libido (on "Baby Phat," an electro-hopping dedication to thicky-thick girls), the ass (on the Wings-based party starter "Simply") and your self-esteem (on the Cee-Lo-anchored, gospel-gilded "Held Down"). They rock your conscience on the ethereal "Trying People," the most textured and mature piece of self-evaluation hip-hop has produced since, well, ever. "Am I just another lost in the pack?" asks Dave, before meditating on hip-hop's post-September 11th apathy, fatherhood and leaving a legacy: "The skies over your head ain't safe no more/And hip-hop ain't your home/And if it is, you're fuckin' up the crib, son."

De La Soul are just about the only hip-hop group worth listening to who are willing to view women as more than a single serving or a side dish. Where other MCs warn of gold diggers, Dave is opening a joint bank account with the lady who "gave [her] all when I just gave it up," on "Special." They even issue a disclaimer before the pimpological fantasy "Pawn Star."

After a dozen years in the game, De La Soul are still relevant, radical and entertaining. They still believe in a hip-hop Shangri-La, and with Bionix, the leaders of the pack bring us a step closer.

“Let My Love Open the Door”

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."