I Got Next

KRS-One had remained a hip-hop leader through several generations of new talent and had proven himself as an artist in a multitude of different ways. Knowing that he'd earned the permanent attention of his peers, he started challenging them anew. I Got Next includes a live spoken-word lecture (“2nd Quarter—Free Throws”), a crawling, near-tipsy piece of jazz poetry (“Over Ya Head”), and a blistering exercise in alternative metal (“Just to Prove a Point”). In that last song, when KRS says he’s “not the type to listen to what everybody will say, but more and more it’s seeming that I can’t trust you anyway,” one gets the feeling that he's referring to an audience whose complacency he's come to resent. Of course, the second golden age of New York hip-hop wasn’t quite over, and I Got Next also delivers a slew of jazzy, shadowy, menacing songs that fit easily alongside classics by Nas and The Wu-Tang Clan. Among these are “A Friend” and the stealthy “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop,” produced by DJ Muggs.