On this present day within the 12 months 2000, Houston misplaced considered one of its most influential musical innovators. Robert Earl Davis Jr, higher referred to as DJ Screw, was discovered useless inside his Houston recording studio on the age of twenty 9. The reason for dying was decided to be a codeine overdose, a substance that might later turn into linked to a sound and a tradition he helped outline.
DJ Screw usually combined prescription power cough syrup with soda to create the drink many known as purple drank or lean. Although this combination lower his life brief far too early, his affect on music has solely grown since. His influence didn’t simply change the sound of Houston, it reshaped your entire panorama of Southern rap.
Often known as the originator of the chopped and screwed motion, DJ Screw turned sluggish tempo beats, vinyl manipulation, and deep atmospheric bass right into a cultural artwork kind. His work grew to become the heartbeat of Houston within the nineteen nineties, inspiring generations of artists and creating a whole subgenre that also lives in the present day.
After his passing, his loyal followers, referred to as Screwheads, made certain his legacy would by no means fade. Within the 12 months 2005 they created Screwfest to have a good time his music and his affect. Within the 12 months 2007 VBS and Vice launched the acclaimed documentary sequence titled Screwed in Houston, which devoted a whole episode to his life, his studio classes, and his blueprint for the Houston rap scene.
With greater than 300 mixtapes and 5 studio albums to his title, DJ Screw constructed a catalog that continues to be sacred to Houston tradition. His sound impressed artists from UGK and Z Ro to Drake and Beyonce and continues to form new generations of Southern expertise.
Twenty 5 years later, DJ Screw remains to be current in each slowed beat, each remix, and each anthem that carries the spirit of the town he helped elevate. Gone far too quickly however remembered without end, DJ Screw stays the sound of the South, everlasting, slowed, and legendary.
