by Harrison Samphir
“But the city makes up for its hazards and its deficiencies by supplying its citizens with massive doses of a supplementary vitamin – the sense of belonging to something unique, cosmopolitan, mighty and unparalleled.”
-E.B. White, Here Is New York (1949)
The cover of Ratking’s debut LP, So It Goes, is a brown-tinged aerial drawing of New York City’s gridiron plan; its countless networked streets, alleyways and tunnels, and a lurking subterranean world beneath. It’s America’s first melting pot, and among the most iconic urban landscapes on Earth.
Known by many different names, Gotham is also a cultural mecca and the birthplace of hip hop music. From Kool Herc’s neighbourhood block parties in the 1980s to the ‘golden age’ of the mid-90s, the Empire City enjoyed a long period as the epicentre of a burgeoning art form that, today, pervades mainstream radio waves, fashion and slang.
Yet in the mid-2000s, the refrains of “hip hop is dead” – spurred in part by Nas’ portentous 2006 record – hung like a spectre over the city. Rap success had moved west and then south, finding a new sound as R&B and electronica converged to transform Billboard hits.
In the words of Complex Magazine’s Ernest Baker, “by 2006, rap’s New York-centric status quo was a wrap. Three 6 Mafia took an Academy Award home to Memphis for their pimped-out Hustle & Flow soundtrack cut. Atlanta’s D4L scored a No. 1 hit with the snap-rap smash “Laffy Taffy,” and for the first time since 9/11, New York rappers were completely absent.”
Trends have a tendency to oscillate, however, and NYC is back on the comeback trail. Artists like Theophilus London, Action Bronson, Smoke DZA, Joey Bada$$, Vado and Roc Marciano are new cogs in a refurbished rap engine that’s propelling the city back to its rightful position of relevance and innovation.
Ratking is an indispensable component – and a youthful one – of this hip hop renaissance. The group, comprised of rappers Wiki (Patrick Morales, 21), Hak (Hakeem Lewis, 20) and producer Sporting Life (Eric Adiele, 33) dropped an EP, Wiki93, in 2012 and followed it up in April, 2014 with an impressive 10-track full-length. Its aforementioned cover artwork, sketched by creative director Arvid Logan, is a dignified piece of imagery: New York hip hop has returned, and it’s as gritty and raw as ever.
Like their recent touring mates Run the Jewels (Killer Mike, El-P), Ratking carries a distinct aesthetic powered by a confluence of influential sounds: Detroit drum & bass collides with chaotic, punchy breaks and the odd shade of Bay Area-inspired hyphy crunk. It’s coarse, indelicate, and cluttered, much like the corrosive yet intricate rhymes overlaying the sonic surface. Lyrical themes of subway hopping, gentrification and autocratic cops weave urban tales that strike at the heart of contemporary issues. New York is a concrete, political jungle; Ratking envisions its present-day mythology.
“New York is a grid,” says Sporting Life, speaking with Stylus from his home in Brooklyn. “Everyone is moving along it in different directions. Sometimes, people on that grid clash for various reasons, that’s always been a part of the city. And, to a certain degree, every grid that people live on and have to interact on, under all the pressures of the things they have to do in their lives, those things clash sometimes. Depending on what frequency you’re on, you’re going to come into contact with some of those things. Your New York can be anything you want it to be.”
Born in Frankfort, Kentucky, Sporting Life began making beats in 2005 and eventually followed his older brother to New York City a few years later. He met Wiki at a neighbourhood rap event and began collaborating on tracks that would eventually become Ratking’s first extended play.
With more than a decade of lived experience, Sport is seen as a big brother to the group’s two young emcees, both of whom still live at home with their parents. It’s an asset that’s allowed him to develop a distinctive sonic milieu while amassing a healthy collection of analog and digital equipment. He utilizes a mixer, delay pedal, preamp, keyboard stands, drum pad, SP-555 drum machine, Ableton Live and Push sequencers to contort samples, warp vocal tracks and amplify drums.
“I like listening to Omar-S,” says Sport of the Detroit techno and house producer known for his DIY approach to sampling and beat recycling. “That kind of thump that’s concurrent in Mobb Deep tracks… nowadays we have the technology to go into such a deep level of sample manipulation. Once I found that out, it opened a whole new world of music for me.”
Standout track “Snow Beach” is an apt example. Inspired by the Ralph Lauren pullover jacket worn by Raekwon in the 1994 video for “Can It Be All So Simple”, the song was built to mimic the sounds of someone splashing around a pool.
“You can kind of feel the water at the beginning of that track,” says Sport. “It’s like Coney Island in early February.”
The video, directed by Dutch art house filmmaker and photographer Ari Marcopoulos, is filled with iconic New York imagery. It follows the crew as they ride the train to Coney Island, stopping at Stillwell and Surf, the world’s largest elevated rail terminal. As they jump off, the camera follows them to a deserted, snow-swept expanse of beach. Wiki raps “Tourists came, try to escape, admire the place, visit the Empire State/I prefer a roof, stoop, fire escape.”
Evidently, New York isn’t just an escape for visitors, but its inhabitants, too. For the members of Ratking, a trip to the island puts the city and its music in calming perspective.
“I just hope our music expresses a balanced photograph of an idea or a day out of someone’s experience” says Sport. “That’s what we’re trying to portray: a snapshot that captures a balanced image.”
Ratking’s second EP, 700 Fill, is out soon.