Music legend trying for the right moves

May 1 2008 by Peter Guy, Liverpool Daily Post

TAKE one Liverpool bar, one music legend and the popular pastime of chess, and you have a recipe for quite possibly the oddest story of the year.

But that's exactly the ingredients to what's going down this Saturday in Liverpool bar Django's Riff, when hip-hop and Hollywood movie star RZA takes to the chessboard as a warm-up to his late-night live show at the Picket.

Brooklyn's Robert Diggs, more commonly known as the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA, is to bring his new venture WuChess to Liverpool challenging all-comers before performing at the Picket, where he will show why he is one of contemporary music's most influential figures.

Co-star of last year's smash hit American Gangster and co-writer and producer of seminal hip-hop records like Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), 38-year-old RZA is known for his ground-breaking production and incisive lyrical wit.

A career spanning 17 years has seen him throw up five solo records plus five longplayers with hip-hop’s greatest supergroup, the Wu-Tang.

Among his multiple side-projects, he's scored tracks for Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, written with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and starred in a number of films, and Saturday sees him bring his new project, WuChess, to Liverpool.

WuChess.com is a new online chess and hip-hop community that will offer live game play, chat rooms, tournaments, lessons and exhibitions featuring RZA and special guests aimed at helping youngsters channel their minds into a game of skill and intellect. A portion of the money raised by the site will go towards funding college scholarships.

After his appearance at Django's Riff, RZA will take to the Picket's stage under his superhero stage name Bobby Digital to perform classics from throughout his career.

This is one not to be missed.

* RZA as Bobby Digital live at The Picket, Liverpool, 61 Jordan St, Liverpool, L1 0BW, 0151 708 6789, Doors 9pm-2am. £12.50 adv/ £15 For tickets/ information call 0151 708 6789 or email coolninjanation@gmail.com

* FOR a full interview with RZA, see Peter Guy’s music blog www.getintothis.co.uk

peterguy@dailypost.co.uk