Rising American hip hop star Rook has been talking to the Palm Beach New Times about how his love for chess influenced his name.
Anthony Joseph DeMaio was just a kid when his grandfather started teaching him to play chess. Although most people would imagine that the name ‘Rook’ is his own take on ‘rookie’, the rapper actually took the name from his favourite game. 
The 22-year-old from Connecticut moved to West Palm Beach to study for a degree in Cinematography and slowly fell into rapping after finding he had a talent for writing.
He had always liked hip hop, but grew up listening to rock bands like Rage Against the Machine and Sublime. However, after starting college it soon began to take over his life. Rook explained, “As I was always around it, I just grew an ear for it, and I started looking into it myself and just kind of became a huge fan and got submerged in the whole culture.”
He didn’t pluck up the courage to share his ambitions with his parents until he had a contract with MBassy Records, after which he told them all about his new career. He explained, “That was a struggle at first. Obviously, when I first gave them that call. That came out of left field for them. It took a little bit, but they’re adjusted to it now, and they support me 100 percent.”
Now, with several records out and having graduated from college, he’s finding he barely has time to get his set out these days… but his name still reminds him of the game that helped him focus on his ambitions.
