June 27th is also known as “Screw Day” for Robert Earl Davis Jr. also known as DJ Screw. June 27th is the name of the 38-minute landmark track off the DJ Screw mixtape Diary of the Originator: Chapter 12 done in honor of the birthday for one of Screw’s friends showcased local Houston Rappers such as Big Moe and Yungstar over slowed and woozy production that became popularly known as Chopped and Screwed. June 27th is celebrated among Houston hip-hop fans, that celebrates the life and legacy of DJ Screw. The last several years have seen DJ Screw’s music permeated online within in the current state of Hip-Hop. This year, the Spotify podcast Mogul on hosted by Hip-Hop journalist Brandon Jenkins focusing on the stylistic origins of Chopped & Screwed music and DJ Screw’s impact on hip-hop at large.
There are many music podcasts to listen to with, but Mogul looks at DJ Screw’s life and how he started the Chopped and Screwed genre of Hip-Hop from the ground level when he moved to Houston from rural Smithville, Texas in the early 90s. Playing records backwards at a slower tempo often through a trial and error process led DJ Screw to establish the Chopped and Screwed sound that took popularity within Houston throughout the 90s and became popular within the 2000s and 2010s. The Chopped and Screwed production style involves slowing down the pitch and tempo of the records and repetition of certain hooks of a song through turntable scratching.
DJ Screw’s legacy is very impactful for his work to the Houston Hip-Hop scene is honored throughout the city through murals and exhibits and even declared a Texas Music Pioneer by Governor Rick Perry back in 2010. There is a full archival record of DJ Screw’s papers and records at the University of Houston for education and research on Houston’s Hip-Hop heritage.
DJ Screw made over 350 mixtapes within his lifetime. The mixtapes were created when friends around Houston liked different radio hits and inquired to DJ Screw often via the phone to make remixes of popular songs to listen to around the city and for occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries or funerals. DJ Screw would write the song requests on handwritten notes at a payphone near his house then head back home to start mixing often overnight.
Once the mixing was completed and the tapes were ready, people waited for blocks around DJ Screw’s house to purchase the mixtapes known popularly as “Screwtape”s. Often the Screwtapes consisted of remixes of popular Houston-area rappers such as UGK originally from Port Arthur, Geto Boys, and Devin the Dude.
Screwtapes were a stomping ground for Houston rappers among DJ Screw’s circle gaining prominence within the city in addition to the slowed down radio hits in between songs on the Screwtapes, DJ Screw would give shoutouts to friends, people that had passed on from within different Houston neighborhoods, but predominately from Houston’s Southside.
By searching through YouTube, you can find popular DJ Screw remixes of popular West Coast rap songs from Snoop Dogg to Ice Cube. As well as of Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight” to the Reggae band Steel Pulse’s “Life Without Music.”
The legendary freestyles on Screwtapes were ciphers among the DJ Screw’s inner circle known collectively as the Screwed Up Click. Among the Screwed-Up Click were rappers such as Big Pokey, Big Moe, Fat Pat, and Lil Keke that became Houston legends that defined the Southern city as a growing rap scene – breaking through prominence to a genre that was heavily dominated by East and West Coast rappers.
The Screwed Up Click hung around DJ Screw’s house regularly often through the night waiting for a chance to provide a freestyle on a Screwtape. Once DJ Screw dropped a beat that worked for everyone, a member of the Screwed Up Click started freestyling and then another member would hop on the mic.
Often members of the Screwed Up Click joined by freestyling for DJ Screw or sending music they hoped Screw would like that would go on a Screwtape. This was the case for Screwed Up Click member Lil O who was able to get his song “Can’t Stop” on a Screw tape which featured a young Destiny’s Child in their original lineup on the chorus.
The Chopped and Screwed production and laid-back rapping style is often heavily tied together with the culture of using the psychedelic drug promethazine. Known popularly as “lean”, in which codeine-based cough syrup medicine is mixed with hard candy and soda within a Styrofoam cup which ultimately ended DJ Screw’s life through an overdose.
DJ Screw’s production style is influential and created a culture all its own within Houston as Chopped and Screwed music was dedicated to cruising slow in big car slabs on large Texas freeways or to lounge outside on summer evenings in the sweltering summer heat.
DJ Screw impact in Houston reached many, even befriending George Floyd who grew up in Houston’s 3rd Ward. Last year, there was a DJ Screw reading list that was trending on Twitter. It took significance coming across Screwed Up Click freestyle “So Tired of Ballin.” in which George Floyd (aka Big Floyd) hopped on the Screw freestyle at around the 14 and a half-minute mark and started flowing. Floyd during his time spent within Houston between playing college basketball down in Florida returned to Houston’s Southside often rapping with friends and came to know and be close Screw enough to be on more freestyles. Screw even dedicated a Screwtape to Floyd titled Tre World.
Last summer, news stations around the clock played the horrific video of George Floyd’s final 9 minutes on the ground that the whole world watched from Minneapolis. In the following days and months, members of the media used George Floyd for their own objectives and purposes before the trial and verdict. There is more to George Floyd’s life that the media did not capture well, this includes his gentle giant demeanor and his time spent within Houston. A Texas Monthly article captures Floyd’s time within Houston and being a steward within Houston’s 3rd Ward. Floyd, whose life was worth more to the police spent time with a producer by enjoying life with friends and coping with struggles through freestyles who would soon be a driving force in Hip-Hop for decades to come.
DJ Screw’s untimely death on November 19, 2020 at age 29 never stalled the Chopped and Screwed production from growing within Houston and beyond. The Slim Thug, Mike Jones, and Paul Wall song “Still Tippin” which was a breakout song for the Houston scene in the mid-2000s employs the Chopped and Screwed Production produced by Michael 5000 Watts.
Chopped and Screwed’s influence looms large in rap within the last decade as influenced within the production style of Travis Scott and A$AP Rocky. It is heard in the 2013 Beyonce song “Bow Down/I Been On” in which the remix features a handful legendary Houston rappers from Scarface to Z-Ro. Drake’s “November 18th” off his breakout mixtape So Far Gone samples the legendary DJ Screw mixtape June 27th. Travis Scott off his 2018, album Astroworld has the song titled “R.I.P Screw.”
The popularity of Chopped and Screwed is still prevalent today through the Chopped Not Slopped remixes of albums such as Megan Thee Stallion, Thundercat, Little Dragon, and 21 Savage & Metro Boomin from producers DJ Candlestick and OG Ron C. Even the Oscar Best Picture winning movie Moonlight orchestral score is influenced by the Chopped and Screwed production style.
Musician, Dev Lemons that runs the popular SongPsych account on TikTok that breaks down music production and songwriting process did a video on the popularity of Slowed and Reverb. The video neglected Chopped and Screwed influence and was called out on social media from people from Houston and Slowed and Reverb producers that were largely influenced by DJ Screw.
In 2018, when Travis Scott was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, his performance of his song Sicko Mode used DJ Screw’s image and words from an interview featured on a dark projection screen. The projection came into prominence at the end of his performance that gave Screw the stage to speak on his legacy and impact. Screw simply stated his music was putting down for the city and the state of Texas. In essence, Chopped and Screwed’s is not only a driving force in southern rap, but is now a lasting influence within Hip-Hop that is now globally recognized.
Song of Note: June 27th Freestyle
The Typecaster 