The Sneak Attack
After a four-year hiatus, onThe Sneak Attackthe 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 toembodythe  music. And if he's gonna get moralistic about what hip-hop kulture  (don't forget the "K") really is on tracks like "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." Fresh for 2001, you suckas.--Jeff  Chang