Emcee Dillon and producer Batsauce have known each other for a long time, both growing up in Jacksonville. They met in the early 2000s, and have been collaborating off and on over the years, releasing some EPs and singles together, but the full length remained elusive. This struggle was compounded when Batsauce and his wife up and relocated to Berlin. Over the next few years, Dillon would venture to Berlin to work on a few tracks, and then would reciprocate and host Batsauce at his own studio in Atlanta. After years of doing this piece by piece and constantly updating, editing, and improving, we finally get the result of all these years of work, On Their Way.

One of the things that will immediately become apparent when listening to this album is just how good Dillon and Batsauce’s chemistry is. It can be an uptempo party rocker like “You Should Be Dancin’ (Not Me),” or a laid back groove like “Penmanship,” you can always tell just how locked in they are with each other and can adjust their styles together. Batsauce is probably best known for his work with Typical Cats emcee Qwazaar, but you can hear how he adjusts his sound so that it works with each emcee’s flow. Qwazaar has a more melodic and uptempo flow, and so Batsauce will dial up the psychedelic rock and gospel and push the tempo more when he works with him. Dillon, on the other hand, has this low voice and really clear and deliberate flow, and so Batsauce looks more to some laidback ‘70s soul and jazz to create these more minimal, laid back grooves. This isn’t to say that he doesn’t find ways to push Dillon out of his comfort zone at times. “You Should Be Dancin’ (Not Me),” is a Latin disco beat that brings out the side of Dillon that is the host of the party. “Magma Mouth” finds Batsauce channeling Madlib in the way he builds on these short jazz loops that transforms what would otherwise be a downtempo beat and pushes the tempo and tension to create a more urgent track, which then in turn forces Dillon to adjust his flow, as he speeds up his flow and writes shorter lines that are always building on each other. As a lyricist, Dillon is able to move between party host, shit talker, wordplay master, and open and intimate storyteller, which is powerfully on display as the album comes to a close with “I Remember.”

On Their Way might have taken a long time to get here, but Dillon and Batsauce wanted to make sure they did everything right. The result is a well-rounded album from two hip hop veterans with great chemistry. You can’t ask for much more than that.