Ratking wield the sort of left-field rhymes that put crews like Antipop Consortium and Def Jux on the map in the early aughts — oblique with a city-hardened edge, best served up on a bed of glitch-addled beatwork that acknowledges rap’s past while utterly ignoring the rules. That makes Black Dice member and solo DFA-signed producer Eric Copeland uniquely qualified to throw this Harlem crew a backing track, and he does on “Gauchos,” a new track hailing from the forthcoming CONS EP VOL. 1. That branded collection will amass original songs recorded by various artists at the Converse Rubber Tracks studio in Brooklyn. Ratking and Copeland’s wonkily grooving collaboration is free to stream and download below.
