Ratking

While their stomach churning name (Google it if you haven’t recently eaten) might seem more suited to some ridiculously violent crust punk band, Ratking are a hip hop group from Harlem, New York. While lyrically speaking everything that rappers Wiki and Hak spit is equally real to anything put forth by any punk band, their poetry and flow put them streets ahead in every other sense. The music, put together by producer Sporting Life, is also far more interesting and forward thinking than most punkers out there. However, the important thing to keep in mind is that “interesting” and “forward thinking” don’t really mean anything if it’s not “good”. With that in mind, Ratking settle their experimental tendencies with an almost unrivalled ability to make any crowd they’re put in front of lose their minds in spectacular fashion. While a lot of the music is very serious, informed and fuelled as it is by their desire to create a new kind of Hip Hop divorced from any of New York’s vast history with the genre, a Ratking show is always a wild place to be that’s rarely intimidating, more concerned with being indescribably fun over anything else. With this much energy, talent and fantastic music in what will (for the time being) be a very cramped space, I can’t recommend this enough. One to see as soon as possible.