This is the 9th mixtape from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania emcee, producer & political activist Ghais Guevara. Beginning in 2019 under the original moniker Jaja00, he put out a total of 8 mixtapes & 3 EPs in that span of time until signing to Fat Possum Records last fall. His full-length studio debut Goyard Ibn Said left me highly impressed & was proud “The Old Guard’s Dead” got synced at the very start of Kendrick Lamar’s historic Super Bowl LIX halftime show. I’m pretty sure Ghais himself has beef with me since I got dragged into a tweet he made a month ago regarding xQc using AI to review Playboi Carti’s new album MUSIC when I’ve repeatedly said that’s not the case & RJ Payne’s manager Coach Kandaka backing me up on it, yet I’m still covering The Other 2/5ths or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Trench Baby simply because I still appreciate his craft as much as I did when I got into him back in January.
…& Everything in It” featuring Teller Bank$ sets off the tape with both of them over a self-produced trap instrumental talking about being made for this shit “Joan” works in some horns & hi-hats so he can try to flip a check along with promising he’d go again being the reason why he’s still dropping classics. “F.O.M.O. (Fear of Missing Out)” finds himself wanting to become a star because of being a target his whole life leading into the 2nd single “C.I.A. Psyop” taking a look at what it was like from him growing up in the trenches.
We have Ghais warning the people around to not make him get hostile during “Eazy-E Tu Mama Tambien” & right after the “Grifterlude”, he samples “Nina + the Field of Cops” by Cameron Winter during the lead single “Nina Narcissist” abstractly talking about a woman named Nina & judging her now as a result of her real life being a drill. “WarriorRaverPoet” goes for a thunderous trap direction instrumentally opening up on popping ecstasy & his brain still working since using it, but then “Battle of da 5 Spot” featuring Yoko McThuggin’ fuses jazz & trap needing space on the come-up tryna find a way.
“Every Tour Date is My Gatsby Party” was my least favorite single of the 3 he teased with all respect giving a fuck less of Heaven & Hell since he goes wherever he so pleases while “Maenad” chops up a crooning sample discussing his inability to conquer feelings as well as doubling up on his double cup going sober until he goes on that dialysis. “Egosurfing, Soul Searching” featuring Faro & Wahid sends off the tape with all 3 of them thanking God they weren’t clutching for self-destruction doing damage to their mothers, brothers, cousins & women.
If the man himself ever reads this, I hope he knows that I hold absolutely no ill will towards him whatsoever & wish him all the continued success. As far as a collection of tracks recorded from last spring when he turned his album into Fat Possum up to present day, The Other 2/5ths or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Trench Baby marks the potential beginning of the end of Ghais’ music career starkly conveying the fact that we all have to leave the nest to adapt at some point in our lives because the debilitation can be exorcised or adorned through its voices tempered by our expression instead of undoing it.
Score: 9/10
