Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) the act of insulting, usu. one’s family and esp. one’s mother.

1958		W.B. Miller ‘Gang Delinquency’ in Short Gang Delinquency and Delinquent Subcultures (1968) 141: The form of ostensibly aggressive verbal and physical interaction (kidding, ‘ranking,’ roughhouseing, etc.).
1969		Commonweal 91 102: On New York streets ‘cutting,’ ‘ranking’ (also known as ‘low-ranking’), ‘woofing’ and ‘sounding’ are different names for a less sexual version of the Dozens and first-cousins to the game of ‘signifying’.
1973		(con. mid–1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 117: One of them (W.B. Miller, 1958) defines ‘ranking’ or ‘doin’ the dozens’.
1986		R. Hewitt White Talk Black Talk 122: De Dread is a-rankin’.