Hip-Hop Chess Federation releases theme track!
Adisa Banjoko, the co-founder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF) told me yesterday about tracks written with a chess theme. One of the tracks is an upbeat rap done by TKash and is dubbed as the anthem for the HHCF and it mission of exploring a fusion between chess and hip-hop. It’s tight! Banjoko has released others which is rotating on the HHCF’s myspace page.
A few years back there was a site called “UrbanChess.com.” It was conceived by a brother named Damon R. Willis III out of Nashville, Tennessee. The site was short on content, but there was some nice tracks by his fellow students. The site was featured in New in Chess, arguably the best chess magazine in the world. In the New in Chess article they ran this line from Jay-Z…
Over my years I’ve seen Rooks get tooken by the Knight
Lose they Crown by tryna defend a Queen
Checkmate, in 4 moves the Bobby Fischer of rap
Most chess songs I have heard have been very heavy on cliches. I have had lengthy discussions with Adisa about hip-hop and chess fusion… particularly the need for rappers to see the “tournament” side of chess (and of course, for the tournament side to see the “hip-hop” side of chess). That may provide deeper insight to the battles that occur and may make for richer material in future songs. The showcased songs are:
Life Strategies – Dealer Bree
HHCF Theme Song – TKash
Knightmarez – DJ QBert
War & Pieces – Wise
Check out the new tracks here!
