Debut Music Video! WAR & PIECE: WISE’S GAMBIT

Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to work with the wonderful organisation Words, Beats, & Life on their original Hip-Hop Chess Tournament Bum Rush the Boards. WBL is an organization in Washington DC that runs various programmes for young people – from MCing to Photography – and they established Bum Rush the Boards to highlight the connection between the strategies of Chess and Life. I came onboard for the 2nd annual competition when I was asked to write a song about chess.  

I once jotted down two lines for a song without any idea what to do with them. The lines were: “It was quite the strangest sight ever seen / one Knight, he tried to mate with the Queen!”. Many moons later I was sitting at my computer and my man Nick (Community League President, amongst other things) popped up on Gchat:

“Can you write me a song about chess?”
“Sure, what for? When do you need it?”
“asap”
“er…ok”

It was time to water the seed that had been planeted and grow the two lines into a song.

I retreated to a secluded courtyard where I battled my sister. I reflected on the many bouts with my sparring partner Susie, getting whipped by my cousin, being defeated in the League by Special Opps and scores of trans-Atlantic games with Cheddar Ted

I returned to The Shire with an epic story of Kings, Queens and Castles. I put the finishing touches to the song in Cat’s Lair whilst Thundercat spent the afternoon creating the perfect beat. We came to a sticking point and had the inspiration to fuse the two beats we’d been working on together, and the beat was completed as I penned my last word.

The rhymes had split and divided into 64 lines, one for each square, and by sundown “War & Piece: Wise’s Gambit” was born.

The guys at the journal loved the song and rather than just having it on the mixtape they decided to make it the official song of the event. Not only that but they set about making a video…the youngsters in the Academy came up with this masterpiece and I absolutely LOVE it!

From a spark of inspiration manifested in rhyme, through a golden opportunity taken, the song has travelled all around the world and, in turn, it has sparked creativity in other minds.

Words, Beats and Life’s fourth annual chess tournament was bigger than ever this year, with more than 165 competing and around 120 taking part in the various workshops.  The event was free for all and there was even a cookout with veggie and non-beef options.

You can read about the event at Across the Fader , you will need to sign up to join the site but it is well worth it. I am not the only musician involved now that the project has grown – this year there is a full Bum Rush the Boards Soundtrack to accompany the event and it has been getting regular spin in my house. Across the Fader  is currently hosting the live stream and download along so visit the site to check out the single “Clock’s Ticking” featuring Raheem Devaughn, Yu, Laelo Hood, Oddisee, Tabi Bonney, Grizz and Drauss.  Bumrush the Boards Official Event Mixtape, (Produced / Compiled / Arramged & Mixed by: DJ R.B.I.) is a compilation of DC’s Hottest MC’s and vocalists. Special guests include: DJ Heat (WPGC-FM 95.5), MC Lyte, & Raheem Devaughn.

If you are unable to sign up to Across the Fader you can download the Soundtrack here!

Please leave comments and let us know how you feel about the video, enjoy the mixtape and spread the word – each one teach one! Most importantly – play chess everyday!

- Wise

Participate Educate And Create Everyday

The Auto-Biography of Special Opps

We have recently done a bit of press for the Community League and have therefore been doing a little self-examination as we have answered various questions about our music and ourselves. Here is what Special Opps had to say about…well, read it and find out!

“I was wondering of you could give me a bit of an account over email about your music. I e what inspires you, how you got started, what your lyrics are about, how you raised the money to fund the EP and also maybe who your musical influences are etc.”
 
My music was always my best medicine. In my teenage years, struggling with severe depression and anger, I learned that expressing all the bottled-up feelings in my head released so much of the confusion, anxiety and hurt I was feeling. I started penning poems with no intention of rapping them, then one day realized I could verbalize my thoughts and it might be somewhat interesting. So that’s what I did, and my friends and family encouraged me to continue because they saw some promise and enjoyed hearing me kick rhymes. At first, it was just spitting around the neighborhood, then at parties, then just wherever I felt like it — on the block, in my room, at open mics. I didn’t actually pick up a mic for a good 5 years. And to this day, I still think I’m a better performer than I am a studio recording artist. Most rappers, in my opinion, are the opposite. You love their album, bump it in your car and in your room, then I’m disappointed when I see them in concert. I still throw up my hands and sing along, but it’s not the same effect. I feed off a crowd, I feel more at ease because I’m not trying too hard to hit every last note exactly right in the booth. But eventually, I wanted to spread my sound far and wide, and to do that, I had to take recording seriously.

 

 
The inspiration question always throws me for a loop. I can’t point to any one artist that inspires me. It may sound like a cop-out, but it’s the truth. In fact, I don’t even consider myself a rap connoiseur. There are tens of thousands of fans who know rap music far better than I do. I just love what I do. That doesn’t mean I don’t have favorites, but I don’t try to emulate them in any particular way. It’s cliche and all, but I just try and do me. As for my favorites right now, I love listening to Murs, Brother Ali, J-Live. I can always use some Gangstarr, Big L, and Tash in my life. As for British rap, I’d be lying if I said I listened to a lot of it, but I’m a huge Roots Manuva fan. Good rap to me can be funny, serious, violent, thoughtful — but more than anything, I like straight-forward lyrics that you can tell took a lot of work. It’s easy to write something you consider deep that no one else understands, and anyone can put together words that rhyme, but it takes work to get your message across clearly in a clever way. I love great wordplay, but not to the point it doesn’t make any sense, and that’s why I’m such a big fan of Murs and J-Live. You can tell there are few throw-away lines in their rhymes. That kind of craftsmanship, no matter the sub-genre of rap music in which it’s found, inspires me.
 
As for funding the EP, it’s a wonderful thing that today anyone can make some music on the cheap in their bedrooms. The consequence of that is that everyone and his mother is a rap artist nowadays, but so what? The making of the EP didn’t cost a dollar/pound to record, but the equipment did cost a few dollars. The funny thing is that my best recording, in my opinion, on the song Secret Garden, was done on my $30 hand-held mic, not the $300 one I bought soon after. I think that’s because I feel much more comfortable with a mic in my hand than I do in a studio recording booth. But as for paying for the EP, I have to take the credit on that one, along with the genius behind the Community League, our President Augustus Ruff. Not because the Oxfordshire boys didn’t want it as much as we did, but we had the means to do it, and so we went ahead and got it done. Tom and Tim and Joe deserve equal credit in all endeavors, but anything they make selling CDs better make its way across the Atlantic so we can recoup some expenses. And I’d be remiss in not giving tons of credit to David Whitepond, the designer who did our cover and CD art for free. This dude had never met us before, he was just a friend of a friend, and he put in countless hours for a project he had no real stake in from the beginning. Albums aren’t made by just the artists, and in this case Mr. Ruff and David Whitepond deserve all types of accolades that often are missing when music is put out there for the masses.
 
Lastly, part of what makes this project so special is that when we first started, I’d never met the Oxfordshire boys. To create an album on two continents, with only email correspondence and a dream to work with, is no easy task. Had we been living in the same place, this EP gets done in a year or two instead of 4. So when it finally became a reality, there was a real pride that we’d brought this British-American connection together. Different lives, different upbringings, similar yet different worldviews. Community Spirit is exactly what it says it is: community has no physical boundaries anymore, and with enough spirit to accomplish our goals, success like this can be had. We don’t claim to be the best rappers out there. We don’t claim to have the best sounding recording or even the best sounds period. We just have a love of hip-hop that merged at the right time and evolved into this EP. All I hope is that it provides some small bit of listening pleasure to anyone — no matter age, gender, race, whatever — who chooses to give it a listen.
 
Special Opps
 
“Obviously your music differs from the conception that Hip hop is all about gun gangs and money etc.”
 
That conception definitely exists to audiences not so famililar with hip-hop, but having grown up in the 90s and listening to both violent and non-violent lyrics in rap, it felt natural to use the art form as a means of expression, whatever the content. That isn’t to say many rappers today don’t see the avenue to riches as one where they’ll promote guns, gangs and money — because many of them do — but there is a healthy dose of rap music that doesn’t contain that all. If that means people want to call me “conscious,” that’s fine, but more importantly, I feel comfortable expressing myself in a way that’s true to who I am. In the end, fans respect that. And the days when hard-core, gangsta-type songs are the norm — those days are slowly dying. Too many talented rap artists have other stories to tell, other ideas to put forth, and I don’t think we deserve any special recognition for doing that. Rap will continue to have those other lyrics of which you speak, but I don’t mind that at all. In fact, I respect well-written songs and catchy wordplay and a tight flow, no matter the content. That said, I do take pride in earning respect as a rapper whose songs may seem less flashy, yet still excite the listener.

Opp had his first solo show the other night so congratulations and here’s to many more! You can leave your congrats in the comments – because that’s what they’re for!

PEACE