DJ Screw dies — sealing chopped-and-screwed as a Houston canon

Why it matters

Robert Earl Davis Jr., who recorded as DJ Screw, died on November 16, 2000, of an accidental codeine overdose at his Houston recording studio. He was 29. The autopsy found the cause of death was the prescription-strength cough syrup (codeine and promethazine) that DJ Screw himself had been an open and prolific consumer of, and that he had made into a core element of the Houston scene's culture. DJ Screw's work between 1990 and 2000 is one of the most distinctive contributions any single DJ has made to American music. He slowed records down to roughly half-speed, cut them, looped them, and recorded the results to cassette. He put out something like 200 numbered Screwtapes over those ten years. He sold them out of his house and his shop. He developed an entire vocabulary ("chopped and screwed") and a roster (the Screwed Up Click: Big Hawk, Fat Pat, ESG, Lil Keke, Big Moe) that would carry the form well into the 2010s. The whole 2000s Houston rap moment (Mike Jones, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Chamillionaire) descends from the sub-genre Screw built. You can hear the chopped-and-screwed influence in 2010s SoundCloud rap, in modern trap deep cuts, basically anywhere a record gets slowed. He was 29.