''The Sneak Attack'' is the fourth solo studio album by American musician

KRS-One Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from New York City. He rose to prominence as part of ...

. It was released on April 24, 2001 via

Koch Records MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch", formerly known as Koch Records and eOne Music) is a New York City-based independent record label and music management company. It was formed in 2009 from the music assets of Koch Entertainment, which had ...

. Recording sessions took place at

Unique Recording Studios Unique Recording Studios was a five-room recording studio operating near Times Square in New York City from 1978 until 2004. Founders and co-owners Bobby Nathan and Joanne Georgio-Nathan installed the first Otari 24-track tape deck in New York. ...

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and at Embassy Recording Studios in

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, with additional recording at 7888 Recording Studio in

Woodhaven, Queens Woodhaven is a neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered on the north by Park Lane South and Forest Park, on the east by Richmond Hill, on the south by Ozone Park and Atlantic Avenue, and t ...

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

was handled by Kenny Parker,

Domingo Domingo may refer to: People * Domingo (name), a Spanish name and list of people with that name * Domingo (producer) (born 1970), American hip-hop producer * Saint Dominic (1170–1221), Castilian Catholic priest, founder of the Friars popularly ...

, BJ Wheeler,

Fredwreck Farid Karam Nassar (born June 23, 1972), better known by his stage name Fredwreck, is a Grammy Award-winning American hip hop recording artist, DJ and record producer. He got his big break when he became a producer for Dr. Dre's newly founded re ...

Grand Daddy I.U. Ayub Bey (August 23, 1968 – December 13, 2022), known as Grand Daddy I.U., was an American rapper who was a member of the hip-hop group Juice Crew in the 1980s. Career Grand Daddy I.U., born in Queens, New York, was raised in Hempstead, Long ...

Mad Lion Oswald Priest, better known as Mad Lion, is a dancehall, ragga musician and rapper.Larkin, Colin (1998) "Mad Lion", in ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'', Virgin Books, , p. 178 He frequently collaborates with fellow hip hop artist KRS- ...

MC Jazzy Jeff Jeffrey Miree (born July 7, 1962), also known as MC Jazzy Jeff, is an American rapper and member of the Funky 4 + 1 who was active from 1979 to 2002. He is sometimes referred to as Original M.C. Jazzy Jeff, in order to indicate that he preced ...

, and KRS-One himself. In the United States, the album peaked at number 43 on the ''Billboard'' 200, number 9 on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

and topped the

Independent Albums The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by '' Billboard'' maga ...

chart. The song "Hush" appeared in the video game ''

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' is a 2001 skateboarding video game and the third installment in the ''Tony Hawk's (series), Tony Hawk's'' series. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision under the Activision O2 label in 2001 for th ...

''.

Critical reception

''The Sneak Attack'' was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 69 based on eight reviews. Sonicnet reviewer praised the artist, saying that KRS-One "delivers all this with passion and booming authority: the teacher is back in front of the classroom, where he belongs".

Nathan Rabin Nathan Rabin (; born April 24, 1976) is an American film and music critic. Rabin was the first head writer for '' The A.V. Club'', a position he held until he left the ''Onion'' organization in 2013.

of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' stated: "as unmistakably old-school as a fat gold chain and a pair of unlaced

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

sneakers.... He delivers a raw, grimy set of anthems as noncommercial as anything he's done". ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' reviewer wrote: "as a sort of lyrical sermon from the mount with uptempo beats to crush the weak-hearted, ''The Sneak Attack'' raises the stakes on the microphone skills front as KRS-One lectures, hectors, drops streetwise politics, and laments the state of the world". In mixed reviews, ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...

'' critic found out that the album "proves this pioneer and innovator's run is far from over". Writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'',

Neil Drumming Neil Drumming is an American journalist and filmmaker. Formerly a producer with the radio show ''This American Life'', in 2020 Drumming became managing editor with Serial Productions, the company that created the podcasts ''Serial'' and '' S-Town' ...

said that the artist "still commands attention, but his booming voice and confidence now deliver warmer, fuzzier messages". ''

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen appliance, kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsion, emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender ...

'' reviewer stated: "Sadly, ''Sneak Attack'' also reflects the influence of Professor One's recent ubiquity on the college-lecture circuit; windy speechifying interludes take up a third of the record. Too bad -- when he does rap, he shows twice the gusto of many rappers half his age". David Bry of ''

Vibe ''Vibe'' is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producers David Salzman and Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down productio ...

'' claimed that "KRS-One sounds as hungry and passionate as ever.... Unfortunately, a barrage of rigid, same-sounding beats and canned choruses detracts from Attack's effectiveness". Evan Serpick of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' wrote: "the most compelling lectures can't obscure KRS' drab old-school beats and samples".

Track listing

Personnel

*Lawrence "

" Parker – main artist, scratches (track 4), producer (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 18), mixing (tracks: 3, 5, 6, 8, 12-14, 16, 18), songwriter (tracks: 2-19) *Harold English – backing vocals (track 1), co-producer, engineering (tracks: 1, 12, 14), editing (tracks: 2-6, 8-11, 13-16), engineering assistant (tracks: 17, 19) *Nyce of the Breeze Team – additional vocals (tracks: 5, 15), songwriter (track 15) *April S. Williams – additional vocals & songwriter (tracks: 7, 16), mixing (track 16) *Hezekiah Walker Choir – additional vocals (tracks: 11, 19) *William "Willie D." Broady – songwriter (tracks: 2, 10) *Kenny Parker – producer (tracks: 2, 7, 11, 16), mixing (tracks: 7, 16) * Ayyub Cave – producer (track 4) * Jeffrey Miree – producer (track 4) * Domingo Padilla – producer (tracks: 9, 10, 14), mixing (tracks: 9, 10), additional mixing (track 4) *Bruno J. Wheeler – producer & mixing (track 15) *Farid "

" Nassar – producer (track 17) *Oswald "

" Priest – producer (track 19) *Matt Hathaway – engineering (tracks: 2, 5, 9, 11, 14, 18), mixing (tracks: 2, 11, 18), editing (track 18) *John Anderson – engineering (tracks: 3, 4, 6-10, 13, 15, 16), mixing (tracks: 4, 7, 15) *"Filthy Rich" Richard Ahee – engineering (track 10) *Milton Chan – engineering & mixing (tracks: 17, 19) *Kaori Kinoshita – engineering assistant (tracks: 2, 5, 9, 14, 18) *Lys – engineering assistant (tracks: 2, 11) *Max Velez – engineering assistant (tracks: 3, 4, 13) *Doug Robertson II – engineering assistant (tracks: 7, 8) *Mike "Music Rocka" McCalla – engineering assistant (tracks: 8, 9, 15) *Aaron K. – engineering assistant (track 10) *Mike D. – engineering assistant (track 10) *Makery Pacius – engineering assistant (track 14) *Jowan – engineering assistant (track 16) *Simone Parker – executive producer *George DelGiorno – design *Benoît Peverelli – photography *Adam Jaynes – A&R *Cliff Cultreri – A&R *Dee Sonaram – marketing *Duncan Stanbury – lacquer cut *Scott "DJ

Scott La Rock Scott Monroe Sterling (March 2, 1962 – August 27, 1987), known by the stage name DJ Scott La Rock, was an American hip-hop disc jockey and music producer from the Bronx, New York. He was a founding member of the East Coast hip hop group Boogi ...

" Monroe Sterling – overseen by

Charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sneak Attack, The 2001 albums KRS-One albums E1 Music albums Albums produced by KRS-One Albums produced by Fredwreck Albums produced by Domingo (producer)