3rd Eye Vision

I can understand why this album was such a game changer in the world of indie hip hop. Some of the beats here have creative melodies that weren't often heard in most underground hip hop albums at the time, and the energy of this crew was youthful and brash. There's a mix of jazzy elements and the typical bass guitars, but then there are songs like 'Mics of the Roundtable', 'Miles to the Sun', and 'You Never Knew' that sound more spacious and surreal. It is a promising album on paper, but I just couldn't fully connect with its execution.

Firstly, this album is a bit too long for its own sake. Songs start to feel repetitive, with the same battle rap trash talk over and over again. While some of the beats are interesting, there are also some that feel quite dull and forgettable. Many of the jazz beats come off as basic or mildly annoying.

The rapping here is pretty good at times, but again, it all starts to get repetitive and flat when you realize half the lyrics here are just about dissing MCs and nothing more. There are a handful of songs that are a bit more conscious, but those are a few and far between. It's just battle raps 90% of the time.

3rd Eye Vision might not be the album for me, but I did like a lot of what it was doing from a production standpoint. It's got a decently diverse range of instrumentals and some upbeat tunes that make for some good skate music. There are clever bars here and there, too. But the album is too long for what amounts to not much lyrical or thematic depth. Most of the time it just feels redundant.