Third Sight is an
underground rap trio from the
Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
of
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. Formed in the early 1990s, the group's members are
MC Jihad,
Dufunk, and
D-Styles
Dave Cuasito (born July 6, 1972), better known by his stage name D-Styles, is a hip hop producer and DJ. He has been a member of Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Beat Junkies, and Third Sight. He has also been a resident DJ of Low End Theory. D-styles is ...
.
History
Third Sight's debut album, ''Golden Shower Hour'', was released in 1998. After its release, the group's three members collected material for a second full-length album, which was released in 2006 as ''Symbionese Liberation Album''. The album's title was inspired by the violent tactics of the
Symbionese Liberation Army
The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a small, American far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the ...
, of which the album is highly critical due to their abduction of
Patty Hearst
Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954) is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found a ...
.
This criticism is partly based on the group's experiences with the Army; in the album's liner notes, Jihad states that "My family attended one of the food giveaway programs that the SLA demanded as ransom for Patty Hearst", and describes the SLA as "bank-robbing, home-invading, gun-toting hippies-gone-bad".
[
]
Critical reception
''Symbionese Liberation Album'' received mixed reviews from critics. AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
's Tim DiGravina gave it 2 stars out of 5, describing its music as "slightly above average indie hip-hop of a self-aggrandizing, sometimes scatological, and misogynistic nature." ''Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
''s Brendan Murphy wrote of the album that "the beats are not mind-blowing, nor any different than any Bay Area underground you've heard before." In a more favorable review, Daryl Stoneage wrote that "fans of groups like Dilated Peoples
Dilated Peoples is an American hip hop group from Los Angeles, California. They have had little mainstream success in the US, with the exception of the song " This Way", a 2004 collaboration with Kanye West. Better known in the UK, they reached t ...
and Non-Phixion, who appreciate their hip-hop a little darker, will want to check this out for sure."[
]
Discography
*''Golden Shower Hour'' (Darc Brothas, 1998)
*''Symbionese Liberation Album'' (Disgruntled/ Amalgam Entertainment, 2006)
*''Chillin' With Dead Bodies In A B-Boy Stance'' (Disgruntled, 2012)
*''IV'' (Disgruntled, 2016)
References
{{Reflist
Hip hop groups from California
Underground hip hop groups
American musical trios
Musical groups from the San Francisco Bay Area