Houston Rappers Remember DJ Screw, 15 Years After His Death

It's been 15 years since the death of Houston legend and chopped and screwed innovator DJ Screw, who died in his recording studio on Nov. 16, 2000 from a reported codeine overdose. But in that decade and a half, Screw's legacy has grown significantly as Houston's MCs and hip-hop culture have seeped into the mainstream rap world and beyond. In the mid-2000s, the likes of Paul Wall, Chamillionaire and Slim Thug brought Screw's patented slowed down grooves onto the Billboard charts, while rappers that weren't born inside the H-Town city limits such as Juicy J, A$AP Rocky and Drake have picked up on the syrup-y aesthetic. Even more broadly, Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber have both experimented with the chopped and screwed sound in the past few years.

DJ Screw was more than just a musical pioneer to many Houston rappers; he was also a friend, a pillar in the music scene and one of the most important figures in terms of promoting local hip-hop and putting on up-and-coming rappers that Houston has ever had. His own Screwed Up Click featuring rappers like E.S.G., Fat Pat, Lil Keke and Big Hawk added fresh stories and local slang to Screw's canvas on hundreds of his Screw Tapes, and his style bled across neighborhood lines during Houston's Northside/Southside beef in the 1990s to the Northside-based Swishahouse collective, which spawned the city's next generation of MCs. To this day, producer OG Ron C carries on Screw's legacy with his own Chopped Not Slopped mixtape series -- as well as a pair of screw-focused radio shows -- taking the style beyond hip-hop by chopping up albums from all genres.

As hip-hop marks 15 years since Screw's untimely death at the age of 29, six Houston rappers spoke with Billboard about the late DJ's legacy and what he brought to the world.

OG Ron C

I met DJ Screw a whole lot of times, but the one standout conversation that me and DJ Screw had was at the DJ DMD "So Real" video shoot. We had a conversation and that was kind of like the heat of the moment when it was a Northside/Southside thing. He just expressed that he, DJ Screw, didn't have a problem with the Northside. He didn't speak for everybody else, the rappers or whatever, but at that moment at that time he expressed that he didn't have any problems with the Northside and it was all cool. That was one of my most precious moments with DJ Screw.

If Screw hadn't come through and made slowed down music cool, I don't know where OG Ron C would be. I'd probably just be a DJ still doing parties or be at radio. But Screw, I credit Screw and Michael Watts [from Swishahouse] for my career as, now, the leader of this whole slowed down thing. DJ Screw said he wanted the whole world to be screwed up. So that's how me and the Chopstars are trying to carry on his legacy, by making sure that we chop up the whole world, all genres of music. We're just trying to carry DJ Screw's legacy on and make sure that it don't get lost in the sauce like any other thing that's created.

DJ Screw didn't start slowed down music -- true enough -- but he made it cool. Making the music chopped, making the words repeat, adding the rapping to it, adding the talking to it. That's what made it a Screw tape, because he came and added those elements to the slowed down music that Jam Pony Express and all those guys in Florida were already doing. You'll see a form of DJ Screw forever, to be honest with you.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6762500/dj-screw-houston-rappers-remember