Now we just need a Dancejam.com and Wuchess.com mashup… in Facebook.

The RZA is a very talented produced with unique skills and compositions. I am not sure how that will affect the site or how much the Wu have/will contribute to it, but it will be interesting to see.

What we need to see is prebuilt FriendFeed rooms for artists. Fans can discuss live, share content, and it will be sort of a news room about the artists. The same could apply to companies as well.

Yo go Bobby Digital

@ ryan
LOL. Now the question: How do you suggest we should go about break dancing and planning your next chess move?

Maybe the pieces turn into dancing holograms when they move?

now that is some creativity. “Can’t stop this”

It seems that they could have done this years ago. I love what wutang has done for hip hop and i hope this works for wutang.

Not surprising given how much RZA is into chess and philosophy, see Ghost Dog http://is.gd/pif and Jon Stewart http://is.gd/pig. Can’t speak to the sustainability of an annual membership fee, but it’s not a lark.

crazy

“I grew up on the crime side, the New York Time side…” …been a fan for years and always appreciated the Wu Tang’s uniqueness and creativity. Once again they’ve shown their willingness to test new waters. I’m interested to see where this leads.

chris - I’m pretty sure I know exactly where this is leading.

i did not know hiphop artists play chess.i am excited . i thought they only hoop , dog fighting (pitbulls- micheal vick) , and i heard people do get killed over this. what does the winner in each game get - a kilo of cocaine , weed, women,???

Is it possible to play chess with IQ60? Surprising.

average iq of a chess player :
http://www.geocities.com/Silic.....378/iq.htm
average iq of a hiphop artist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.....h_Jobs.jpg
This is like asian men trying to be porn stars

The world’s gone crazy.

!

@ goodguy

wow congratulations, you managed to be racist toward two different ethnic groups in the span of three lines.

It’s good to see hip hop artists doing something to promote education and give back to the community. The membership is steep, but how many startups these days actually HAVE a monetization strategy. At that, how many of them evolve? I’m sure this one will evolve as well.

FWIW, I became aware of the site from a younger (and arguably “cooloer”) friend of mine about a week and a half ago: http://ktw17.blogspot.com/2008/05/wuchess.html

Chess is VERY popular among the hip hop community so this isn’t a bad idea but $40 is too much. They must not have gotten the memo that internet = free.

@goodguy, I respect your right to an opinion but please go to any major city’s public square or park and note the number of (seemingly) hip hop fans playing chess.
When you get there, announce that people who like that particular music genre are too stupid to play chess and prepare yourself for a beat-down.

I was just about to type out a post applauding the fact that people went about to combine two of my interests in one site. I actually went to the website to register before i had finished reading the entire post, and it was only when i signed up that i saw the $48 charge.

Seriously, you want me to PAY you for listening to hiphop when i can do that on my mp3 or radio while i’m playing online or face-to-face?

I agree with Michael, this is going to the Deadpool. Fast.

Funny story - I got the email about 3am last night stating they were going live June 2nd… I immediately went to the site to finish signing up for my account. Started creating my account, saw the $48 fee…closed that FF tab never to visit again. I even Twitter’d the guy who first told me about it that Wu’d lost their mind & tried charing $48 for the site. Needless to say, we both got a good laugh out of it.

Although my personal experience, I see this being pretty standard across the board.

+1 Deadpool!

I smell an epic failure.

@goodguy

The bell curve is now one of the most discredited studies ever done. Psychologists and scientists in education and anthropology have shown that cognitive development and IQ is overwhelmingly a product of environmental factors: parent(s) nurturing, upbringing, fellow peers, surroundings, chemicals in housing, diet, etc., among other factors. I won’t get into the hell that people have to go through growing up in the ghetto and the direct effects that institutionalized poverty, oppression, and lack of education has had during America’s first couple hundred years. Things didn’t even begin to change in the US until the late 1960s, for crying out loud. IQ is also a function of genetics. However, as most recent studies have shown in the past years, one’s environment directly affects DNA. DNA doesn’t even take a generation to change. Straight from the womb, if you’re growing up disadvantaged, that’s likely to affect DNA. And, of course, every generation, genetic dispositions compound. Recent studies on twins growing up in separate environments also prove that role of environment can have more than an 80+% effect. Add to that predispositions due to US culture making people feel like shit for hundreds of years, affecting genetics, and the picture is clear.

You might know of experiments which take an equal sampling of kids, where they tell one group that they’re the “Advanced” group and the other that they’re the “Beginner” group. The kids who are told that they’re “Advanced” all tend to excel on tests higher. Only in recent years are we finally making some progress in the US where one doesn’t have to feel like shit or be told that they’ll never amount to anything, just because of the melanin in their skin. Only till recently have there even been any current “role models” and people to really look up to in public life. Obama is a great example. His campaign gives everyone — no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, whatever — the realization that the US can better itself. He’s a positive influence who invokes pushing the US ahead, not regressing.

Anyway, the fact is, the bell curve is flat-out unscientific and a rather prehistoric document now. Add to that its seedy origins. The amount of melanin in one’s skin has nothing to do with IQ. Though I will fully submit to you that a culture heavily in gansta rap (not to be confused with regular rap) does, indeed, yield *very* negative consequences. That’s a cultural/environmental factor. Chess has long had some roots as a street side game. Very bright players exist everywhere. It’s great to encourage hobbies like chess for everyone, especially younger people, and promote progress — not hatred like “goodguy”.

Now that this post has opened the eyes of many readers, I’ll go ahead and explain a business tactic that my team has adopted in the past six months.

Recently we became good friends with past Olympic champion, and local entrepreneur Peter Brooks, who is deeply rooted in the urban scene. After short brainstorming sessions the advantage of having a team composed of individuals involved in the black community* and us white honkies have allowed us to make some serious deals in the nightlife entertainment industry (a pet project that we have started and has acquired 10,000 hits in two weeks since launch).

*I’m not implying that having a token black guy was our aim in starting the aforementioned venture, however it has given us a huge edge over all of our competition. On a side note he is the most efficient promoter and marketing analyst I have had the opportunity to work with.

I just wonder what the hell were they smoking when they thought this would work

Deadpool

to bad the creators couldn’t think of a better way to monetize the site. In general I think it is a good idea and plays to a fairly large, untapped audience. -hip hop fans. unfortunately, most of that crowd is out spending their last $20 on a dub sack…

the site needs to go free or it will fail. a shame because it is a cool idea and i do like the design/style or the site.

oh well, i suck at chess anyways.

It’s depressing to know what the comments are going to be before you even read them.

We hear about questionable businesss models every week on on TC, but this is the only one that turns into a debate about IQs, DNA, and the “Ghetto”.

I’m such a proud member of the startup community.

“The Hip-Hop Chess Federation hosted its second ‘Hip-Hop, Chess & Life Strategies’ event. The HHCF uses Hip-Hop, chess and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and nonviolence. ”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G0u4_c3z2M

@ 23.
Personally I think this is a great idea but charging ANY amount of money for access is not going to help at all and quite frankly $48 is outrageous. Remember: internet = free.

I love this, because my favorite thing about the Wu Tang Clan is that they are clearly out of their goddamned minds.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone.
BTW - I’m seeking funding for my site GothBadminton.com.
Anyone interested?

Are the Harlem Globetrotters somehow involved?

Too bad it’s not free.

@Mark

I partially agree. However, I would find it much worse if “goodguy’s” comment were left to just rot there without being challenged. Disagreements happen everywhere; that’s life. Personally, I don’t want ignorance to spoil the “community.” Correcting hateful assertions is a positive thing.

Anyway, I tried.

Oh sorry,

I forgot I had to drive my cab and mistreat women before I could comment on how stupid black people are.

My name is Rajiv Singh, and I am a racist dickhead.

Wutang is very creative in exporing new business opportunities and expanding their influence. Also, chess is really popular in the urban community, maybe even more popular than the suburbs because where i grew up there were just other things to do, but i can see chess being popular in parks, etc. The price of $48 is definitely going to be a problem. I’m not sure the pros at the park would be interested in paying for that, but if the site branches out to explore greater advertising partnerships it could be a winner such as providing premium content that you can’t find anywhere else.

nice post Michael!! big ups from the online hip hop community.. thx!

At least the comments started out reasonably intelligently.

I didn’t know how hip hop and chess would mix beyond a very core audience until I started seeing photos from and talking to people who went to Hip Hop Chess Federation events:
http://www.hiphopchessfederation.org/

It’s a really cool thing and a reminder that our assumptions are often wrong.

When I heard that RZA was going forward with WuChess [not a Wu-Tang project, per se, they all get to use the brand for their own projects], I was happy to hear about it but did not note the subscription fee.

ChessPark has paid subs but at different levels and slightly lower pricing. The all or nothing subscription is definitely a killer. I’m disappointed to see they didn’t include the free level as part of the WuChess offering.

By the way, Global Grind and Dance Jam aren’t looking so hot. Neither are most of the hip hop social networks that got good early coverage and no follow up from anyone but me and a handful of not so visible bloggers:

Dismal Outlook for Many Hip Hop Social Networks
http://www.prohiphop.com/2008/.....tlook.html

Skip the new sites just stroll on down to http://www.redhotpawn.com, there’s plenty of people there already…

the subscription fee is a heck of a good idea…

i respect whoever who play chess well. You dont’ have to be smart to play chess, but people enjoy the process. why not respect them? you have ppl doing dogster and catster, how surprise can this be?

@goodguy, don’t you know japanese has the biggest porn industry world wide?

This further convinces me that B 2 C biz models are not the way to go .

People won’t even pay $4 a month, not because they dont have it but because they are used to gettting things free on the internet .

If you want to start a biz .. DO NOT DO B 2 C . Its hard to come up with a sufficient revenue model .

Time for a woman to interject. I thought you guys were intelligent beings but when a comment on a STARTUP turns into a racist banter there is something really inherently wrong. DNA, IQs, HOOPs, Hip Hop, such a generalization.

The RZA is amazing and probably has a much hight IQ than any of you commentators. Its trury amazing, though the majority of the comments where fair, why hate on hip hop and the black man, its just plain ignorant. My question, I already know the answer to, if it was a white man at the top of the posting, the reviews would probably be more positive.

Straight haters!

Good luck to WuChess and the RZA.

Hip Hop+Online Chess+$48.00 to play= Deadpool

I hate it when conversations start out intelligently, then take a drastic dip into racism, hatred, or something else that’s just totally irrelevant.

One thing’s for sure. This concept (hiphop + chess) is definitely new. And being something totally new, it could attract a bit of attention, giving it a needed boost, which could lead to copycats in the market. Only downside that seems to jump out me though, is the cost $48 is a bit crazy to be playing chess, no?

I think WuChess should offer a free trial period for new users. Once people use and bet hooked on the service, they’d probably be more likely to pay the fee. The $48 wouldn’t seem so high if you’re playing several hours a week. They could even break it down - “less than $1 a week to battle other players around the world.” Many of the most popular video new games on the market for Playstation, Xbox and Wii cost at least $50.

If a game offers the same level of quality as a purchased game, plus the additional benefit of interaction with other players worldwide to improve your skills, why not charge for it? I say good for the RZA for not relying solely on an increasingly diluted ad market to make a go of this.

RZA pities the foo who don’t pay $48 for online hip-hop chess.

Harry “oops, wrong black guy” Wang

Thank you Michael for covering the WuChess project, which OGG LLC (parent of Chesspark.com) is building with RZA, leader of the Wu-Tang Clan. Some commenters have questioned whether charging will prevent people from participating, and while we won’t mention other gaming services who are successfully charging for participation, we will mention that there are many at risk youth whom we are letting in to learn to battle on an intellectual level, and these folks are subsidized by those who do pay, and by benefactors who cover the fees.

The Hip Hop Chess Federation is dedicated to providing an inclusive setting for individuals to interact, play, and develop life strategy skills with people they perceive as mentors. RZA is on the HHCF Board of Directors, won the first Hip-Hop Chess King’s Tournament, and is doing all he can to help underprivileged and at risk youth.

As far as OGG LLC, Chesspark.com and WuChess.com are the first two projects spun out using OGG’s technologies. Led By Jabber Board Member Jack Moffitt (who previously helped start and build both the Xiph Foundation, creators of Open Source Audio Codecs and Tools and The Green Witch Internet Radio, sold to CMGI back in the day) OGG’s rock star development team has built an incredible Jabber stack which among other features translates between XMPP and HTTP. If you’ve checked out what OGG has built (and Chesspark has a free trial if you’re in for the Chess, but not down with RZA) you will see what in many ways is by far the most cutting edge AJAX/XMPP application ever created. So all those folks who are having issues scaling their XMPP related services or whom are looking to interact their web application with Facebook Chat or any other Jabber Interacting Application, WuChess’ parent company has the ability to effectively build or rebuild any services of this type, if the situation is sufficiently mutually beneficial.

As someone who has worked with both Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Musicians as well as numerous Tech Startups, it is when folks converge at the intersection of several interest areas that money can be generated. And converging a Multiplatinum Rapper who wants to help underprivileged youth through Chess, Life Strategies, and Martial Arts with a non-profit dedicated to the doing the same, with the top development team in the XMPP space is sure to generate a lot of fun. Folks want to work with projects that are fun, and while we realize that folks who don’t want to pay the 13 cents per day will never realize the value of what they are missing at WuChess (though they can still play for free at sister site Chesspark which is also cool, but where you won’t encounter RZA) we are very excited to see the stream of folks signing up today who obviously feel that there is some value to connecting with their multitalented Hero, and to mutually help underprivileged youth learn to battle on an intellectual level.

Hope to see you, in person, at WuChess.com, or over at Chesspark.

Check out this website where you can play for free :

http://64squar.es

It’s pretty slick actually

Jonah

This is only the beginning. HipHop stars are realizing that the real money is in all this web 2.0 sh!t so of course they are now hustlin’ online. Wu-tang and chess? now that’s deep. I can respect that. Their business model? maybe not quite there but someone is gonna eventually get it right.

Now matter how much you may hate on hiphop, hiphop rules the media right now and it’s what the youth are buying. money=power.

IT Gangsta is gonna lead the revolution.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xw6YPh-fAko

Does anyone else think the co-founder looks like Cliffy B?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2XYf4zI-I4