{"id":182257,"date":"2023-05-20T10:30:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-20T08:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/?p=182257"},"modified":"2023-05-17T23:05:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T21:05:45","slug":"when-chess-meets-hip-hop-wu-tang-clans-gza-and-an-unlikely-blend-of-cultures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/when-chess-meets-hip-hop-wu-tang-clans-gza-and-an-unlikely-blend-of-cultures\/","title":{"rendered":"When Chess Meets Hip-Hop: Wu-Tang Clan\u2019s GZA And An Unlikely Blend Of Cultures"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Stephen Lewinksy and GZA after their match<\/span><\/h5>\n

(TheGuardian)<\/strong><\/a> Two clocks count down, not quite in sync, and there\u2019s a collective intake of breath in the hall where more than 100 people stand transfixed by the projection of a chess game on the wall. Two hands dart across the board. White\u2019s clock hits zero, black wins with one second left on theirs, and the tension in the room is released. The players smile at each other and raise their arms in a sort of acknowledgment of their captivating game.<\/span><\/p>\n

On one side of the table is Stephen Lewinsky, a Melbourne doctor and former Australian junior chess champion; on the other side is the pre-eminent hip-hop artist and founding member of Wu-Tang Clan, GZA.<\/p>\n

These most unlikely of opponents have been brought together in an unassuming restored church hall in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy North for a speed chess tournament. GZA, who completed the Australian leg of Wu-Tang and Nas\u2019s NY State of Mind tour on Sunday, has hosted similar events in the US but this is the first time he has fused the two elements of popular culture in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"\"Competitors speed through a match in the early rounds on Monday night<\/span><\/h5>\n

\u201cIt makes sense,\u201d<\/em> says the night\u2019s MC, N\u2019fa Jones, pre-empting any bewilderment. Jones, an African-Australian hip-hop artist of 1200 Techniques and Cool Out Sun, says Wu-Tang\u2019s \u201cmusic, energy and unapologetic force\u201d<\/em> helped raise him and he sees the alignment of chess and hip-hop clearly.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cHip-hop, as a culture, is multifaceted,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople think it\u2019s just rapping or something but there\u2019s so many elements to it. And I think chess \u2013 understanding the game, you make your next move, your best move, planning, recognising, strategy \u2013 it\u2019s an important part of hip-hop and just life and culture in general.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jones sees GZA\u2019s passion for and skill at chess as a natural extension of his approach to the genre.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cGZA has always pushed the intellect in hip-hop,\u201d he says. \u201cNot just through rapping it in bars, but how he lives his life. And that is, you know, a heavy chess player to the point that we\u2019re running an event like this where, I think he did 17 straight bouts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In a grey knitted sweater, blue jeans and black sneakers, the introspective man hunched at the board doesn\u2019t cut that much of a different figure from when he\u2019s rapping bars, but ask about chess and a boyish excitement appears on his face. Using a checkers board and transparent, neon pink and green chess pieces, a nine-year-old GZA learned the rules of chess from his cousin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me the name of each piece and their functions, their mobility, how they move,\u201d GZA says. \u201cAnd I kept that with me but I never played a game.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"GZA flexes his brain muscles against a heat winner<\/h5>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the early 1990s when he linked up with rapper Masta Killa that GZA actually started playing chess. The pair once played 78 consecutive games in 12 hours and now GZA plays every chance he gets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a passion for it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a mind-worker \u2026 for strategy, critical thinking, planning two, three, four steps. I just love the game.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He may have held on to the memories of that first Technicolor chess experience but these days he prefers classic standards on his chessboards.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to play on a board where the pieces are the Byzantine empire or a certain dynasty, and the pieces are so fancy it\u2019s hard to distinguish sometimes,\u201d he says. \u201cYou know, I want the pawn to be a pawn and not look like a bishop.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Playing chess with one of the world\u2019s pre-eminent rappers wasn\u2019t on the cards for DJ James Benjamin a few years ago, when amid Melbourne\u2019s Covid lockdowns he started teaching the artist Jack Irvine how to play chess. It still wasn\u2019t on the cards when the city finally emerged from restrictions at the end of 2021 and the pair founded Acid Chess Club.<\/p>\n

\"\"The winner of each round on Monday won the right to play GZA<\/span><\/h5>\n

But on Monday night he helped Melbourne distillers The Gospel bring together lovers of chess, hip-hop and whiskey to experience a previously unimaginable crossover.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis whole thing is pretty wild,\u201d Benjamin says. \u201cI got a call from The Gospel, they needed someone to run the chess tournament, I wasn\u2019t going to say no.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On one side of the old church hall there are two rows of eight tables. Every 30 minutes, Benjamin herds the next round of 16 players to their seats for 3\/2 blitz chess elimination (three minutes for the whole game with two seconds added every move). The winner of each round gets to step up to the main table under lights to play GZA.<\/p>\n

Rox Ziffer methodically wins her way through her round, surrounded by a small but rapturous support crew. She says being a fan of GZA makes her more nervous to play him.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny actually, my boyfriend and a bunch of his mates all started getting really into chess in the last six months and they love hip-hop and Wu-Tang Clan, so when this came about they were like, \u2018Oh my gosh, what an opportunity,\u2019\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"\u2018This whole thing is pretty wild,\u2019 says James Benjamin, co-founder of Acid Chess Club<\/span><\/h5>\n

The tournament blends seamlessly with the vinyl DJ sets of hip-hop, soul and funk from Mr Lob and Deejay Mathematics, plus some intermittent freestyling from Jones. Reece Lloyd, a member of Benjamin\u2019s Acid Chess Club, wins his round but plays down his impending game with GZA, also known as \u201cthe genius\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool to meet him but it\u2019s just kind of like a chess night.\u201d The barista says he doesn\u2019t really listen to Wu-Tang Clan but that \u201cit will be cool to tell my friends that I played chess against fucking GZA\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Clockwise from top left, competitors James Benjamin, Rox Ziffer, Reece Lloyd and Stephen Lewinsky<\/span><\/h5>\n

GZA walks into the hall at 6.30 pm, hangs his jacket on the back of his chair and sits down to play two-and-a-half hours of speed chess. In between moves, he rests his elbows on the table and in between games he leans back to stretch his arms over his head. But he never gets up from his chair. After three nights of arena shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, this is where he wants to be.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old doesn\u2019t really engage with the enthralled audience, but he smiles as his opponents sit down and exchange a few words with those who want to. He wins some, he loses some. Lewinsky thinks GZA the chess player is \u201cquite careful, makes sure he doesn\u2019t lose any material and sticks to general principles\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt was a lot of fun,\u201d he says, comparing their down-to-the-wire game to a James Bond movie \u201cwhere the bomb went off in Goldfinger with seven seconds left\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"The room watches on as GZA plays a heat winner<\/span><\/h5>\n

Lewinsky, who was \u201cdragged here by my children\u201d, is used to playing in front of an audience and against high-profile talent, but others who take to the centre table aren\u2019t as confident. Already stressed from wrangling the tournament, Benjamin was reluctant to play GZA with \u201c100 to 200 people watching you, plus being on the projector screen\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like performing intellectually in front of people, putting your brain on the line in a way,\u201d he says after his game. \u201cI didn\u2019t think about what I was doing for the first 10 moves, I thought I\u2019d be sporadic, I ended up doing some no-no moves to throw him off but it didn\u2019t work and he kind of boxed me in. Sitting up there with him was pretty intense, the experience of a lifetime for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Ziffer celebrates a win in the early rounds<\/span><\/h5>\n

Benjamin learned chess from his dad; Ziffer\u2019s mum \u2013 who runs chess clubs in schools \u2013 taught her early on, too. GZA and many of his opponents on Monday night learned how to play when they were young from an older family member or friend \u2013 and he has tried to do the same for the generation after him. When GZA\u2019s daughter was about eight years old and his son was five he decided to teach them the game.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI showed them how to play but they weren\u2019t really interested,\u201d he says. \u201cIt got to a point where I would offer the winner some money, like five or 10 dollars. But they decided to stage the game and whoever wins they just split the 10 dollars. It wasn\u2019t until my son, maybe about nine years ago, he started playing again. He loves it. He\u2019s like, \u2018This shit is the bomb, man, this is the ultimate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Lewinksy and GZA after their match (TheGuardian) Two clocks count down, not quite in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pG6fW-LpD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}