Ratking Announces Debut Album, Drop New Single ‘Canal’

They made our list of New York Rappers to Watch in 2014 and now Ratking, the triumvirate of Wiki, Hak and producer Sporting Life, have announced the release of their debut album 'So It Goes' on Apr. 18 and dropped a raucous lead single called 'Canal.'

Sonically we've seen Ratking make a departure from the more conventional hip-hop production of their breakout single 'Wiki Speaks.' Songs like like 'Comic' from the 'Wiki93' EP gave us a taste of how far left the trio was willing to go, incorporating elements of drum 'n' bass and electronic music and combining it with Wiki and Hak's punk-inflected approach to vocalization. The end result was something one could loosely describe as "noise rap" or "avant garde hip-hop."

On 'Canal'  the first single from their full-length debut 'So It Goes' they're embracing the unorthodox but they dial it down ever so slightly to pull new fans in. The beat is signature Sporting Life, turning cacophony into a symphony on some Bomb Squad "wall of sound" s--t but this time around we get a beat that's more trap than trip-hop.

For their part MCs Wiki and Hak use the beat as the backdrop fro their ode to the New York City streets that raised them, particularly the borough of Manhattan as they laud the resilience of NY's denizens.

Want more left field hip-hop from Ratking? You'll get hefty helping of it when 'So It Goes' drop on Hot Charity/XL Recordings on Apr. 18. Check out the tracklist and album art by Arvid Logan below.

RATKING 'So It Goes' Tracklist:

1. *
2. Canal
3. Snow Beach
4. So Sick Stories (ft. King Krule)
5. Remove Ya
6. Eat
7. So It Goes
8. Puerto Rican Judo (ft. Wavy Spice)
9. Protein
10. Bug Fights
11. Take (ft. Salomon Faye)