Wu and Kung Fu is a Triumph

A night in Bushwick is nothing short of an arousing mix of 90’s rap and 70’s Kung Fu.

Stray cats, filthy overhead subways and back alley gambling — a scenario likely from a Wu-Tang Clan song, but this time it’s just August 31st, another Friday night in Bushwick. As I look up to find oversize metal letters that read “The Tea Factory” in place of where an address should be, I realize I’m in the right place. Over the next two hours, around 50 people pack onto the rooftop, and the night’s “Wu & Kung Fu” screening gets started.

Eight months ago Brooklyn couple Lauren Safady and Andrew Jimenez began organizing hip-hop nights filled with custom DJ mixes, homemade food and drinks at nearby bar Wreck Room. Although veterans to the bar entertainment scene, tonight’s loft screening was Safady and Jimenez’s first private rooftop event. As Safady laid out the night’s vision, “we wanted to do something that honored Wu-Tang, brought fans together and showed the Kung Fu that inspired them to make their music.” She scanned the crowd happy with the turnout, dismissing her fears that no one would show up due to the Wu-Tang Clan’s appearance at Rock the Bells the next day in New Jersey. “We figured this will be for the people who can’t afford Rock the Bells but still want to hear some great Wu-Tang”, said Safady.

The night continued with a marathon of Kung Fu movies, most notably the 1973 film “Enter the Dragon.” Safady and Jimenez dubbed music from the Wu-Tang Clan discography, along with its members’ solo albums, over the film’s audio. Attendees in mohawks, dreadlocks, dashikis and every imaginable plaid shirt design, fellow New School students and Tea Factory building residents agreed that the 1993 debut album “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” is the Wu-Tang Clan’s best to date. “The out of the box hip-hop, a little strange but still raw, that’s what Wu-Tang represents,” said an attendee who called himself Mr. Rucks. “Once you combine the love of Kung Fu, action movies, and Wu-Tang Clan’s superstars of rap, it literally is ecstasy, it’s genius!”

Even in the presence of die-hard Wu-Tang fans, serious Kung Fu followers paced around the rooftop acting out scenes from the featured films, sharing their martial arts knowledge to Safady and Jimenez throughout the night. One of these devotees, lifelong martial artist Clarence, explained the style of Wing Chun Kung Fu. “It’s a form developed by a woman that Bruce Lee studied before he developed his own, the one he’s using in the film playing,” he said.

Just as Safady and Jimenez brought an unlikely crowd up to date on classic Kung Fu movies like “Enter the Dragon,” “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” and “Five Deadly Venoms,” you can also expand your martial arts knowledge by going online and watching every Kung Fu film you can find. While you’re at it, make it a party: dim the lights, crank up the volume and synchronize the films with the endless list of Wu-Tang songs.