New York looms large in the musical imaginations of Ratking, a hip-hop trio building a promising career out of chronicling the mean streets and philosophical architecture of their home city with a vivid but unvarnished eye. NYC may be their USP, but the group are canny enough to realise the value of localisation. “Where my weegies at?” asks rapper Hak, and the crowd stuffed into this basement venue cheer in recognition and swagger in time with the booming beats and tinkling cascades of Makeitwork, a typical Ratking track about strife and striving.
Hak, fellow rapper Wiki and producer Sporting Life are young, hungry and apparently in a hurry. Their well-received XL debut album So It Goes only came out last year but they’ve already self-released 700 Fill, a fuss-free follow-up recorded in six days and available via BitTorrent. They’ve toured with the rambunctious Death Grips and cite punk and hardcore alongside more traditional hip-hop influences but their live show, while never lacking in energy, has an enjoyably mellow undercurrent.
Sporting Life wrangles black boxes and occasionally triggers key beats with a demonstrative swing of a drumstick. Wiki is more agitated, throwing himself into Flurry, a track built around a harsh synthetic flute loop, and leading the room in a jumpalong to the title track of So It Goes. Hak remains chilled, but seems to enjoy the fact that the front few rows are practically on the stage, reaching out to make a connection between songs.
Along with their youthful crackle, Ratking have a clutch of pretty great songs. Before they return for a woozy encore, they wrap up with one of their strongest, Canal. It evokes the bustle and exhausting hustle on one of New York’s most famous thoroughfares, with Wiki rat-a-tatting over tripletted snares and an insistent heartbeat of sonic scree. Canal Street is where you go to buy knockoff designer handbags, but Ratking feel like the real thing.
