Screwed in Houston

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Chopped and Screwed (or screwed and chopped), slowed and throwed, slowed and chopped, H-Town music, screw music, screw, S.L.A.B.-ED, and dragged and chopped all refer to a technique of remixing hip hop music which developed in the Houston hip hop scene in the 1990s. This is accomplished by slowing the tempo and applying techniques such as skipping beats, record scratching, stop-time, and effecting portions of the music to make a "chopped-up" version of the original.

Overview

The style was developed in Houston, Texas<1> by DJ Screw, The late DJ Screw, a South Houston DJ, is credited with the creation of and early experimentation with the genre. DJ Screw began making mixtapes of Houston rappers' slowed-down music in the early 1990s.<2> Originally, this process involved mixing two copies of the same record, slowed down either on the turntables using pitch shift or, later, through use of an after-mixer device. Phasing, Flanging and echo effects were originally the result of the two records being played at millisecond intervals.

Some Houston-area artists (e.g. Ganksta N-I-P and Willie D) began to incorporate the slowed tempo into rap songs. Willie D's Die, from the album I'm Goin' Out Lika Soldier, featured a slowed-down sample of Scarface's line "Balls and my word" (from the feature film) well before chopped and screwed gained more mainstream acceptance.

The genre was associated with both the use of marijuana and the consumption of "syrup," prescription cough syrup which can contain the narcotic drugs codeine or hydrocodone in combination with other things like promethazine (not the dissociative-anesthetic drug dextromethorphan found in over-the-counter Robitussin, as is often mistaken). This has been credited with influencing the genre's psychedelic style.

DJ Screw made a significant number of mixtapes (purported to be in the thousands), usually with a theme. This provided a significant outlet for MCs in the south Houston area, and helped local rappers such as Lil' Flip, E.S.G., UGK, Lil' Keke, and Z-Ro gain regional and sometimes national prominence. Early tapes were often screwed and chopped versions of instrumentals over which rappers would later freestyle, but later tapes were mostly vocal tracks with occasional toasting or freestyle intermissions. By the time of Screw's death in 2000, the genre had become widely known throughout the southern United States.

Mississippi rapper David Banner released a chopped and screwed version of his Mississippi: The Album in 2003<3>, marking one of the first efforts by a Mississippi artist. Other southern recording artists, including Eightball and MJG, Lil' Troy, The Geto Boys, MC Breed, and Three 6 Mafia, as well as Chicago's Do or Die, had similar success.

Currently, the style is exemplified in the music of Swishahouse DJs such as OG Ron C and Michael 5000 Watts. Their work has helped establish current rappers Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, Slim Thug, and Mike Jones, and rap groups such as The Color Changin' Click and the Screwed Up Click. More major recording labels have embraced the genre, and chopped and screwed albums occasionally outsell their unmixed counterparts. The practice has even reached overseas, as evident by a remix version of "Kamikaze 108," a track off the debut album of the J-hip hop supergroup Teriyaki Boyz.

Paul Wall's commercial success in 2005 has made him the most prominent artist working within the genre. It also marked a movement in production technique from turntables to the use of Vinyl Emulation Software. Paul Wall appeared on MTV Jams during the summer of 2005 to host a block of chopped and screwed music videos and to talk about the remix technique he uses. In April 2005 the first albums from the genre were made available at the iTunes Music Store.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia