On April 11, 2007 Kurt Vonnegut suffered head trauma in his New York City home that ended his life, but due to a private burial it is uncertain whether he has a headstone with the engraving “so it goes”. Seven years later, New York rap trio RATKING will release its Hot Charity/XL debut entitled So It Goes, which can only be assumed is homage to a memento mori containing the power, humor, and insignificance of death, forever challenging the worth of our being since published in 1969.
That's RATKING though. Since the release of the Wiki93 EP, Hak, Wiki, and Sporting Life have pursued rap as both high art, intense and post-modern, and as the last remaining subversive artform. With legendary engineer Young Guru behind the boards, RATKING's album will feel like the sonic equivalent to the “Respiration” sample that once personified the Big Apple, “Escuchela.. la ciudad respirando.”
On “Canal” the crass production of Sporting Life is like a battering ram by the ATF through your front door, while Wiki and Hak remain calm and collected among the caterwaul of shrieks and piercing noise. The rappers trade verses of stress rap in a manner only two born and raised in the concrete system could manifest.
RATKING's So It Goes is out April 8 on Hot Charity/XL.
