In a different timeline, I would have listened to the music of DJ Screw in high school. I grew up in Port Arthur, TX – the home of Bun B and Pimp C of UGK, though I didn’t know that at the time. My first experience with hip-hop that wasn’t MC Hammer or Vanilla Ice came when Houston’s own Geto Boys dropped “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” in 1991. The eighth graders in band taught me how to play the song’s hook, which I now know was “Hung Up on My Baby” by Isaac Hayes.
I bet plenty of those friends from middle school probably would have scored legit and bootlegged “Screw tapes” in high school. They could have helped me experience the genius of DJ Screw in real time. Then again, there’s a good chance I wouldn’t have understood “chopped and screwed” music since I listened primarily to guitar-driven alternative rock in the ‘90s.
But that didn’t happen.
Instead, I attended a small private Christian school for high school and listened mostly to Christian rock music. In fact, I had no clue who DJ Screw was until I started listening to Soular Grooves on KPFT in 2003. That was three years after he passed away, and his music didn’t make sense to me at the time. It wasn’t until the pitch-bent and distended soundscapes of Burial’s Untrue bowled me over in 2007 did I begin to grasp how revolutionary and visionary DJ Screw’s music, talent, and artistry truly were.
Some might say those admissions make me a rather poor choice to review DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution. I think I’m just the right person to talk about it because I arrived at my appreciation of music organically. It also helps that I’m a fan of insightful, thoughtful writing that comes from a place of deep respect and admiration without falling headlong into hagiography.
This book is an absolute powerhouse.
Released on University of Texas Press, it’s part oral history, part journalism, and part labor of love. Lance Scott Walker brings his formidable talents and connections to bear on the most important figure in Houston music in the last 50 years. Across 250-plus pages, he collects personal interviews, rich investigations, and thorough details to deliver a powerful front-to-back biography.
For the uninitiated, DJ Screw was born Robert Earl Davis, Jr. in 1971 in Smithville, TX. He was a producer, remixer, rapper, entrepreneur, and so much more. Over the course of the ’90s, he grew into an icon in the Houston music community by creating and distributing those aforementioned Screw Tapes.
The “chopped and screwed” style he created and pioneered should be regarded as an aural reflection of Houston’s Southside as the 20th century wound to a close. DJ Screw slowed down, distorted, and weaved together various beats, loops, hooks, and voices into a mellifluous whole that was perfect for Houston’s car community and clubs. And he did it all with an immaculate internal chronometer, otherworldly capacity for sounds and textures, and a deep collection of vinyl.
DJ Screw was also a fierce friend and passionate creator who passed away far too soon.
People across Houston and the wider hip-hop community knew him as a brother, friend, uncle, and all-around respecter of people. Because of his musical acumen and internal talent magnet, he united members of disparate groups into a wide-ranging collective called Screwed Up Click. He achieved this through the freestyles recorded on his Screw Tapes, investing in the careers of his friends and acolytes, and reppin’ the city of Houston whenever possible.
To convey this soaring story, Walker brings together the essential voices from DJ Screw’s life. Spanning personal interviews, other journalistic endeavors, lyrics, and material written by Screw, the book paints a rich picture of a man who was driven by his craft to deliver music to the people. It walks you through each era of his life, complete with intricate tidbits about each and every section of Houston where he made his mark, right down to apartment complexes, neighborhoods, and well-known locations.
At times, it feels like you’re walking the streets of Houston with DJ Screw and his friends. Some of the stories have a day-to-day, week-to-week energy to them that never drags or getting too in-the-weeds. Walker sets you right down in Apartment 100 in Quail Meadows, in The Wood Room on Greenstone, or inside Screwed Up Records & Tapes on Cullen. He creates a chronicle of Houston and its hip-hop scene in the ‘90s with DJ Screw as both the fulcrum and focal point. But he also takes great pains to honor and respect the people who served as his influences, guides, and mentors.
The book is a love letter to a man, his sound, and his city.
Though his interview subjects speak longingly and lovingly of their deceased friend, Walker maintains the man’s mystery while showcasing his humanity. He goes to great lengths to pay homage to Screw as a person, not just the icon, by talking about how much people loved him as Robert Earl Davis, Jr. – and how much he loved them. It also provides an immense amount of in-the-studio into the processes and techniques DJ Screw used without giving away the secrets.
If you are interested in the man behind the “chopped and screwed” sound that has worked its way into becoming a dominant aesthetic for contemporary hip-hop and R&B over the last 20 years, then you should read DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution. Not only is it the story of DJ Screw, but it’s the story of his family and the people, artists, and creators who comprised Screwed Up Click. Lance Scott Walker delivers a poignant and personal tale that should solidify and codify Screw’s place in the hip-hop pantheon while also never shying away from who he was as a person in everyday life.