In the cult of personality that is hip-hop, sometimes a name says it all, summing up an artist’s mission, motives and methodology more accurately than a thousand press packets. Black Thought and Ol’ Dirty Bastard certainly come to mind. Yet, no name captures an artist more vividly than Pharoahe Monch, conveying not just mere superiority, but a larger than life majesty rooted in a romanticized golden era. Like the Pharaohs of old, his words resonate with equal parts domination and edification, and on W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) Monch sheds the gauze in which he was mummified on the cover of 2007’sDesire to deliver an impassioned revival.