Ratking’s new album drops in the US on April 8. If “So Sick Stories” and the accompanying video are any indication of this Uptown trio’s aesthetic, their premier album ‘So It Goes’ portends to be a quantum leap for Hip Hop’s current sonic landscape. MCs Wiki and Hak, like a reborn El-P and Bigg Jus, scatter abstract syllables and concrete imagery like shards of broken glass on so many Harlem overpasses. They seem to conjure the spirits of the city’s restless ghosts in their frenetic verses, and the accompanying beats bear somber witness. U.K. up-and-comer King Krule dips in for an intense hook on the track; an unlikely yet brilliant complement to Ratking’s gritty and astute meditations. – BrokeMC
