Time might reveal Wiki’s solo career to be one of the most fulfilling breakthroughs in turn-of-the-’20s underground hip-hop. But it stands out more starkly when you consider the formative work he did with fellow rapper Hak and producer Sporting Life in the supergroup-in-retrospect Ratking. Here you’ve got two rappers in the waning months of their teens embodying 2014 NYC through full-immersion city-building narratives like OutKast did the ATL of 20 years before. It’s old-soul cynicism and knowledge mixing into youthful this-that-new-shit defiance over beats that do unholy things with snare rolls and melted-gunk loops.

– Nate Patrin