Ratking: So It Goes review – 'Turns a new page in New York hip-hop'

"Most of these rappers now, they're of a different generation … a 23-year-old rapper is completely different from Biggie and Pac … So it goes." With this spoken introduction – poleaxed by a distorted, syncopated beat – Ratking make their intentions clear. Comprising two 20-year-old rappers, Wiki and Hak, alongside producer Sporting Life (a decade older), the New York collective have created a dirty, aggressive, but creatively fecund form of hip-hop that's steeped in their city's musical legacy, but still heading in a new direction. They may not be aping Notorious BIG (unlike many of Ratking's peers currently rebooting the 90s "boom bap" style), but at times they recall the Wu Tang Clan, the alternative NY hip-hop of Def Jux and, most often, the uptown street sounds of the Diplomats. As with all smart groups, influences are submerged into a broader aesthetic that also takes prompts from hardcore and can incorporate a guest appearance from London's crepuscular balladeer King Krule. The city provides much of the lyrical focus, from love and money to gentrification and police brutality, but Wiki and Hak keenly observe the details of their physical environment, too. Unrelenting and abrasive it may be, but So It Goes turns a new page in New York hip-hop.