Released: May 17, 2019
Featuring: GZA Masta Killa
Songwriter: Masta Killa GZA
Producer: RZA
[Verse: GZA]
The remedy for stress is a day and a rest
A bag of sess, playing chess, yes
My thoughts be sneaky like a crook from Brooklyn
When you ain't looking, I take the queen with the rook then
I get vexed, laying phat tracks on Ampex
[Interview: Masta Killa]
I was basically leaving the hustle life. You know, going to night school striving to get a diploma and transitioning to a legitimate lifestyle. That's what my life was like at that point when I met GZA. He mentioned he had family and brothers in Staten Island that were putting this movement together, this Wu-Tang thing. So one day he invites me to go to the studio with him. I didn't go because I had to go to night school that evening. So the next day he had a tape of what they did the night before. And that tape was an unfinished version of "Protect Yo Neck." When I heard that, everything just became crystal clear now. I never missed another studio session after that. Whenever he told me he was going somewhere I was there. It inspired me to sit down. Let me just see if I can write something. I've never written a rhyme before this. So that's what I did. I basically rehearsed that one rhyme, that one rhyme until I mastered it.
"You remember the rhyme?"
It was the "Mystery of Chessboxin'" one.
The remedy for stress is a day and a rest
A bag of sess, playing chess, yes
My thoughts be sneaky like a crook from Brooklyn
When you ain't looking, I take the queen with the rook then
I get vexed, laying phat tracks on Ampex
[Interview: Masta Killa]
I was basically leaving the hustle life. You know, going to night school striving to get a diploma and transitioning to a legitimate lifestyle. That's what my life was like at that point when I met GZA. He mentioned he had family and brothers in Staten Island that were putting this movement together, this Wu-Tang thing. So one day he invites me to go to the studio with him. I didn't go because I had to go to night school that evening. So the next day he had a tape of what they did the night before. And that tape was an unfinished version of "Protect Yo Neck." When I heard that, everything just became crystal clear now. I never missed another studio session after that. Whenever he told me he was going somewhere I was there. It inspired me to sit down. Let me just see if I can write something. I've never written a rhyme before this. So that's what I did. I basically rehearsed that one rhyme, that one rhyme until I mastered it.
"You remember the rhyme?"
It was the "Mystery of Chessboxin'" one.
more tracks from the album
From the album
Wu-Tang Clan popular songs
- C.R.E.A.M.
- Protect Ya Neck
- Triumph
- Da Mystery of Chessboxin’
- Method Man
- Bring Da Ruckus
- Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta Fuck Wit
- Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber
- Shame On A Nigga
- Clan in Da Front
- Can It Be All So Simple / Intermission
- Tearz
- Gravel Pit
- Reunited
- People Say
- It’s Yourz
- A Better Tomorrow
- Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)
- Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber - Pt. II
- Impossible
- I Can’t Go to Sleep
- Killer Tape Skit
- Back In The Game (Phoniks Remix)
- Ruckus in B Minor