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

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 Ya 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'" rhyme

Copyright: Universal Music Publishing Group
Writer(s): Elgin Turner, Gary Grice