Review Summary: A noisy train ride through New York's urban soundscape.
It is universally known that the state of New York is essentially a holy land when it comes to the hip-hop culture. Hip-hop as a genre has gone through many evolutions since its inception in the 70s. From block party rapping, to the Golden Age of the 80s, to the boom-bap of the 90s, to the emerging mainstream sound of the 2000s, and the new school sound of today, New York has always been a sort of headquarters throughout hip-hop’s transitions. While many NY-based outfits have paid homage to their training grounds, few have done it quite like RATKING.
RATKING is an experimental hip-hop group consisting of two emcees, Wiki and Hak, and their one producer Sporting Life. WIKI93 was actually originally Wiki’s solo endeavor turned debut group EP. 90% of the vocals you hear on this record will be Wiki’s nasally, aggressive voice. Hak takes a backseat on this record, contributing only one verse on 646-704-2610, a few spoken word introductions, some ad-libbing, and a hook on Piece of ***. While his appearance is subtle, Hak’s chill, laid-back aura balances out Wiki’s eccentric style. The opening track, Retired Sports, Hak opens with some spoken word on what is considered “wrong” and how everyone has done some kind of wrong throughout their lifetime. This theme runs throughout the EP while Wiki describes his experiences as a self-proclaimed “city mutt:”
“Gulp, gulp, startin’ to sink. A drunk mutt, that’s my pedigree, it’s meant to be. Hennessy’s the only thing that’s friendly to me. I’m straight New York, what a lot of y’all pretending to be.” Wiki’s subject matter doesn’t stray far from his drinking problem, his disproval of NYPD, and lurking through the metropolis. His delivery is crude and direct and meshes well with Sporting Life’s beats.
This is a noisy record. While lyrics are generally held to a higher standard in hip-hop, this is a record that is very centered around its atmosphere. The production is screechy, clanky, and abrasive. While some songs have a more traditional boom-bap foundation to them like Wikispeaks, others diverge left field such as the fast-paced Comic and it’s breakbeat percussion. Some these tracks have a spacey, atmospheric flare reminiscent of shoegaze music. There is so much pure chaos, it is difficult to understand what is going on most of the time. But when you break it down, a picture can be pieced together that is both beautiful and grotesquely ugly. This gives the record high replay value with every listen revealing an aspect of the soundscape you hadn’t noticed before. Electronic blips and clanks, whirring urban backdrops, unconventional modulated vocal samples. These swarming, brash sounds help to build the mental image of the bustling concrete jungle that is New York. Wiki does his own spoken word piece on Retired Sports that contrasts his anxious stillness while waiting on a train with the never-ending mayhem of city through Sporting Life’s production:
“Do not lean on door, my back is leaned against two doors, smacked together, ready to rip apart contemplating train racing, car hater word racer world racer, train travels, step by step, track by track, lost in time.”
When it comes to experimental industrial hip-hop music, RATKING provides a masterpiece with their debut EP release. This is not by any means an traditionally accessible record. It has a harsh sound that would turn conventional hip-hop heads off on the first listen. However, this is a fresh new-school EP with multiple layers that really grows on you. The aim of art can be to express an artist’s reality through it, and RATKING masterfully expresses their reality and environment through their music.
