Ghais Guevara Shares New Single 'The Old Guard Is Dead'

Ghais Guevara has shared a new single The Old Guard Is Dead, taken from his upcoming debut LP Goyard Ibn Said, which will be released January 24th via Fat Possum. 

On the new single, The Old Guard Is Dead, Ghais Guevara offers: "Restriction always breeds innovation and this song is an example of that. The lack of sample options at my disposal forced me to work with unfamiliar songs, sounds and flows. The result is me and my navy storming the pier, the citizens look in fear because they know we won’t be leaving."

Born and raised in North Philly amidst both guns and gang avoidance tactics, nurtured and educated using generational radical Black leftist thought, Ghais Guevara revels in the juxtapositions and narrative conflicts of his life on his new project: Goyard Ibn Said. His discography reveals two previous mixtapes, with Ghais now declaring Goyard Ibn Said his debut album and his first release for Fat Possum. Influences range from Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 film Persona which Ghais says “opened my mind to the concept of the deflated self as a result of trauma” to Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks and onto Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. 

To ask Ghais Guevara, Goyard Ibn Said is a concept record with Goyard acting as our fictional anti-hero. The listener submits to an anthological gaze into the desires and downfalls of a successful rapper and the exploitation of the Black experience. Act 1 highlights the glory and spoils of mainstream hip-hop stardom, while Act 2 takes a surprise turn and focuses on the tragic experiences faced in order to achieve that success.

The unrelenting pressures and tragedies never stop: poverty, crime, death, success, fame, fortune, Goyard is shattered, broken, suffering a mental collapse. Perhaps the greatest contradiction arrives towards the end of the album where we find Goyard mustering the courage to get up and try once again, maybe now ready to impart hard won wisdom for the next generation, this tragic cycle ending with him. Maybe not. 

Photo credit: Sam Resetarits