
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom graffiti writer, MC & producer Jehst dropping his 4th EP. Introducing himself by releasing an EP called Premonitions through his own label YNR Productions based out of London. He would go on to drop High Plains Drifter along with his debut album The Return of the Drifter & the sophomore effort Falling Down under the Leeds imprint Low Life Records, following the latter up with the Mengi Bus mixtape & the Nuke Proof Suit extended play. Coming off The Dragon of an Ordinary Family as well as the experimental Billy Green’s Dead, he’s compiling 4 tracks ahead of his next LP.
The title track gives off a dusty boom bap suggesting the younger artists must’ve thought he was born yesterday whereas “420 Every Day” works in a horn sample to talk about smoking weed daily. “State of the Union” gets the 2nd half of Heathens going with my favorite track here, hopping over a boom bap instrumental from Pitch 92 to letting off shots using his pen & “Body Bag” wraps things up angrily asking if anyone’s looking for a war they can’t win.
I believe there’s a good chance High Plains Drifterwill always remain my favorite EP in Jehst’s discography, but I’d have to rank Heathens as the weakest of the 4 placing it behind Nuke Proof Suit & Premonitions. However, I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking I’m trying to call this wack when it’s one of the more average entries in his catalog. His penmanship isn’t an issue, although the production dividing itself between boom bap & the experimentations of Billy Green’s Dead could’ve been stronger than I hoped for.
Score: 3/5