Damien HolstersLooking at the tracklist of “Rations”, the final collaborative project between rapper Dillon and late producer Paten Locke, you might find cause for concern in the fact that all of the heavyweight features (Masta Ace, Large Prof, Dres from Black Sheep) come early on, as if to lure you into accepting to sit through an 18-course meal whose first couple of dishes were cooked by renowned chefs, but whose later servings will pale in comparison. Before going any further, note that this culinary metaphor is intended: from the very first of lines on “Pots & Pans” and throughout, food is a constant point of reference. Many rappers will claim to do so, but Dillon, an actual chef who can be seen pressing paninis on stage during his live shows, really is cooking, in more ways than one. (The title of this project falls in line with the rest of the duo’s food-inspired catalog, in which you’ll find projects such as “Food Chain”, “Studies in Hunger” or “Side Dishes”). Back to the matter of the album possibly tricking you with toothsome features, it should be said that such worries are quickly alleviated. Firstly, rhyming alongside the aforementioned Golden Era pioneers, Dillon doesn’t once look out of place. Secondly, there’s a case to be made that the album actually gets even better as you go through it.
Only two songs with a featured artist can stake a claim to be the finest on the LP. The first is “Bump”, which stands out in how well, with its dope scratching and spooky, theremin-like sounds, it manages to turn B2K’s vapid hit into something that sounds like an outtake from Company Flow’s “Funcrusher Plus”. The second is “Pallbearers”, if only for Willie Evans Jr.’s grave voice catching those bass-clef notes like he’s DOOM on “All Caps”. The rest of the collabs actually end up sort of blending together, like one big, generic-albeit-well-laid-out posse cut (that also features Wordsworth or Diamond D in addition to the pair’s labelmates). Indeed, when you get to “Cruel Mistress”, five tracks in, and you hear Dillon climb those suave notes and brilliantly-simple drum pattern with his jaded, grown man energy, you’re left wanting more of that. As a matter of fact, from tracks 9 to 17, the only skippable song is probably “Down With The Kings”, the Diamond D feature. This last half-hour is definitely the best part of the album, and it makes you realize Locke and Dillon need little less than each other to make enjoyable music.
Or rather, needed. As mentioned earlier, in 2019, six years after he had founded the Full Plate record label with Dillon (Discogs mistakenly dates the foundation to 2016), Paten Locke passed away from cancer, leaving the Atlanta-based label without its “general”. As such, “Rations” is a project that’s steeped in gratefulness and remembrance, and feels a lot like a greatest hits compilation: little discrepancies in tone and sonic atmosphere reveal that this one wasn’t written, produced and recorded all at once, but rather compiled and layered up in the years following Locke’s passing, and meant as a final tribute to a massively-talented underground producer, the likes of which there aren’t many.
As evidence of this, check out “Gunsmoke Starring Dillon”, a drumless instrumental with which Locke seems to be having the time of his life, playing with soundbites and filter sweeps. Check out the use of synths on “Always Never” or “Ponte Vedra”. Check out “Pots & Pans” whose sampling of horns establishes that P. Locke and Pete Rock are similar in more ways than the near-homophony of their names. It’s clear that the pair had a varied taste in music, as evidenced by the different genres these rations give you a sample of, in addition to being alluded to in some of Dillon’s name-drops: “I’ll slap you like a bass that’s played by Ron Carter” (“No Bluffin”) ; “Still pulling strings like Les Paul” (“Bump”). When this eclecticism gets explicitly asserted on the end of “Always Never” (“I’ve always found the connection between what I do in hip hop [and] (…) 70s progressive rock, psychedelia, I found the connection with punk music, with jazz, and RnB, and soul, and blues…”), it is with a sense of pride which, by that time, feels well-earned.
As for Dillon, he might be overshined by Locke’s beats at times, but it’s his sorrowful, heartfelt lyrics that make “Drinking Solution” or “Burning in the Ashtray” highlights of this album. He isn’t averse to humor either, and will get you chuckling from time to time. Take “Whatever You Need” for instance, a romantic song, but one that Dillon opens with a model of self-satirizing candor:
“If I recall I saw her at the laundromat
I’m walking out the door and she was cause for me to wander back
I’m not a charmer but the part of me that wanted to mack
Is pondering the odds of a positive response to that
Now, where my lovers of double-entendres at?
You know, to break the ice a bit
So why not roll the dice and kick a line that is my type of slick?
Something like, huh, I don’t want the whole pie, miss I just want a slice of it
But make sure that it’s nice and thick” – “Whatever You Need”
Dillon’s own love for double entendres is displayed on “I Need Therapy”, a song that chronicles his beginnings in rap, his relationship with P., and how his “heart melts” in the pain of his absence. Of course, its title, and lines like “Thinking about it got me sittin’ here wishin’ that I could get some therapy”, only gain their full meaning if you know that P. Locke used to go by the name DJ Therapy… It would’ve been the perfect note to end the album on, as “Found in a Crate” doesn’t really add anything to the listener’s conclusion that, while “Rations” might be the last project by Dillon and Paten Locke, it definitely won’t be the last they listen to.
LYRICS: 7,5/10
MUSIC: 8/10