Atlanta emcee Dillon and Berlin producer Batsauce both have roots that go back to Jacksonville, where they met and first started collaborating in the early 2000s. Two years ago, they teamed up for a full-length album called On The Way. Now they have reunited once again for an EP called Self Medicated.

If On the Way was an album that was outwardly focused, informed by the duo’s worldly travels, Self Medicated is quite the opposite. This EP might be short, but it is focused in it’s mission to examine the ways in which people self medicate to survive - whether it be through booze, drugs, food, sex, or anything else. Batsauce sets the tone well for the EP with some really subtle and tasteful midtempo grooves built around some smooth jazz samples, usually leaning on piano for the melodic flourishes. It’s not overly dark, and it’s not that grimy either, just really thoughtful beats that allows for Dillon’s lyricism to shine. Dillon can have a huge personality on the mic and rock a crowd when the situation calls for it, but in this scenario, he’s scaling things back and just letting the narratives and social observations he’s making within the verses and choruses cut through and deliver the necessary message. That message is not one of judgement, but one of understanding how people, especially in American society, try to cope and self medicate to deal with their problems, and how these things can manifest. There’s something just a little early Tom Waits to the project, in the way that songs like “Gonna Have a Drink Today,” “Goin’ Dutch,” and “Doctor’s Orders” don’t judge the protagonists of the songs, but instead seek to understand how they got where they are, and what the self medication is doing to them.

Self Medicated is the type of EP that you expect from a couple of veterans like Dillon and Batsauce. They work together with incredible chemistry, and trust themselves enough to not get flashy or over do anything. They just rock some solid grooves, and deliver some really thoughtful lyricism that accomplishes a lot in just seven short tracks.