Sneak Attack

After a four-year hiatus, on The Sneak Attack the T'cha comes out fighting, as usual. "Attendance" ticks off a list of KRS'S additions to his ongoing revisionist history lessons, before dropping this gem: "All these rappers swear they the best, I know what you're thinking about: 'Where's KRS?'" The blastmaster's ego is still breathtaking. It's this swagger that has always made KRS-One thoroughly hip-hop: his desire not merely to represent, but to embody the music. And if he's gonna get moralistic about what hip-hop kulture (don't forget the "K") really is on tracks such as "Hot" and "Hip Hop Knowledge", at least he's spitting it in dope rhymes over dope beats. While younger cats speed along on crispy, digitally flipped beats, none of KRS-One's spare, stabbing beats would sound out of place in an early 90s mix. But, like the man says, what goes around comes around. On "The Mind", he rhymes, "You ain't gotta be a scholar to know the next four years gonna be ill." --Jeff Chang

Label: Unknown
Studio: Koch
Released: 2001-04-23
Format: Audio CD

Extras/Features:
Explicit Lyrics