DJ Screw
Robert Earl Davis Jr. invented a way of listening to music. Screwed and chopped, the technique of slowing a record down and cutting between two copies of it, started as a Houston tape-culture practice and ended up embedded in mainstream production worldwide.
Early life and origins in Houston
Davis grew up in Smithville and then Houston's South Park. He was experimenting with slowing records in the early 1990s, initially as a personal preference, and began selling mixtapes out of his house. Demand grew to the point that people queued down the street, and the tapes were sold by the number rather than the title.
The Screwed Up Click
The rappers who recorded freestyles over his slowed instrumentals became the Screwed Up Click: Fat Pat, Big Moe, Lil' Keke, Big Pokey, E.S.G., Z-Ro and others. The tapes were the scene's distribution network, and several careers exist because a verse landed on the right grey tape.
What screwed and chopped actually is
The tempo is dropped substantially, which lowers pitch and stretches every vocal, and the DJ cuts between two copies of the same record to stutter and repeat phrases. The effect is hypnotic and heavy. It is inseparable from the codeine culture it grew up alongside, which Houston artists have discussed with more honesty than most scenes manage about their own drugs.
Death and legacy
Davis was found dead in his Houston studio on 16 November 2000, aged 29. The coroner recorded a codeine overdose alongside mixed drug intoxication. The technique outlived him completely: OG Ron C and the Chopstars continued it, Houston kept it as a local standard, and it later surfaced in the production of artists with no connection to Texas at all. Vaporwave, much of modern trap's tempo sensibility and a great deal of contemporary remix culture trace back to what he was doing on a home setup in South Park.
The tape catalogue
He produced hundreds of mixtapes, numbered rather than titled, and the grey tapes circulated across Texas as physical objects long after the rest of the country had moved to CDs. 3 'n the Mornin' is the best known compilation, and the Screwed Up Records and Tapes shop in Houston still operates.
Who came through the Screwed Up Click
Fat Pat, Big Moe, Lil' Keke, Big Pokey, E.S.G., Z-Ro, H.A.W.K., Trae tha Truth and Lil' Flip all appeared on the tapes. For several of them a Screw tape freestyle was their entire early distribution.
Influence and legacy
Screwed and chopped moved from a Houston practice to a global production technique. Its tempo logic runs through a great deal of modern trap, its pitch-shifting shaped vaporwave and cloud rap wholesale, and artists with no connection to Texas routinely release chopped versions of their own records. Few producers have had a wider reach from a smaller commercial footprint.
Frequently asked
Where is DJ Screw from?
Davis grew up in Smithville and then Houston's South Park. He was experimenting with slowing records in the early 1990s, initially as a personal preference, and began selling mixtapes out of his house.
What is DJ Screw known for musically?
Davis was found dead in his Houston studio on 16 November 2000, aged 29. The coroner recorded a codeine overdose alongside mixed drug intoxication.