Third Sight

Like Skratch Bastid’s recent album, Third Sight (made up of MC Jihad and DJs Dufunk and D-Styles) contend that they are bringing the DJ back to the forefront of the hip-hop record. Though unlike Bastid’s TKOB, the scratching on Symbionese Liberation Album is less prominent and this seems, for the most part, to be little more than press release hyperbole. D-Styles, a new-ish addition to the group, seems to have all but replaced Dufunk (who only produces one track here), and does lace up some scratch-happy beats, like the ominous "Anti-Happy” and the bass heavy "Will I get Shot by a Bass Fiend,” which features a hot verse from MF Grimm. But the beats are not mind-blowing, nor any different than any Bay Area underground you’ve heard before. Jihad, for his part, has a solid flow and is clearly a smart MC, equally at ease rhyming about rabbits ("Hasenpfeffer”) as he is about the inner life of a hit-man on the Dee-produced "Run.”