Checkmate! Nas & ‘Power’ EP Mark Canton Team Up For Series On First Black Chess Grandmaster Maurice Ashley
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: “Plan to leave something behind so your name’ll live on / no matter what the game lives on,” says Nas on his 1999 album Nastradamus, and now the revered rapper is making some moves in a new game.
Chess to be precise. Chess at the highest level. Nas has teamed up with Power Universe EP Mark Canton for a TV series based on the life and victories of Maurice Ashley, the first Black International Chess Grandmaster.
In conjunction with Ordinary Angels producers Green Hummingbird Entertainment, the plan is for a NYC-set eight-episode initial season depicting Ashley’s barrier breaking journey, I’ve learned “I’m grateful to be part of bringing Maurice Ashley’s incredible life to the screen,” Nas said today of the project. “His story is one of greatness and his perseverance will continue to inspire the next generation of thinkers.” Former Columbia Pictures chairman Canton put it even more bluntly: We cannot be more excited to move forward on this one.” The Jamaican-born and Brooklyn-raised Ashley rose up through the checkmate ranks to be become a Grandmaster in 1999.
The founder of the Harlem Chess Center, Ashley has been a coach to national champions like Harlem’s Raging Rooks of Harlem, and the Dark Knights.
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