DJ ScrewDJ Screw

""Screw music doesn't peak. It just grinds." DJ Screw was a Houston DJ who became famous in the 1990s for slowing down rap songs (think: playing a 45 rpm record at 33 1/3 speed), and repeating key lyrics, while local rappers sometimes freestyled over the instrumental portions of the mix. The slowed-down sound became synonymous with Houston, and was often referred to as "chopped & Screwed." It was literally homemade music; Screw recorded in his house, re-mixed the sessions to cassette tapes, and those tapes then went into cars that went booming into the same Houston streets that the local rappers were rapping about. The tapes became immensely popular, with hundreds of people lining up outside Screw's house every night. Eventually, Screwed Up Records & Tapes opened, selling nothing but Screw tapes, and it is still open, still selling nothing but Screw tapes, even though Screw died in 2000. This book blends narrative biography with oral history. Walker has talked to virtually everyone with a connection to Screw, from his immediate family and childhood friends from Smithville to his girlfriends and the rappers he worked with, and the book is rich with extended quotes from people in Screw's world"--