DJ Screw

It's original.

And then Boo, right, I mean, you know, DJ Screw was coming out with his thing.

Pokey, Moe, I knew all of them.

Mm-hmm.

Right

... do these albums, man.

It wasn't just one person, you know? And even Screw, you know, I know, um, DJ Screw, you know, DJ Screw, we can't take nothing from him.

He did what he did, but the Screwed Up Click, you know, they d- they played a major role in helping him as well.

You know? Like, like straight up, like, Memphis rap and, like...

Or, like, Chopped & Screwed, you know, DJ Screw, like, like, this kind of slower but very, like, yeah, it moves through you, this waves of, like, like, this intoxicating quality, um, that is such a, a, a, you know, like, also infectious in a completely different way, that it's not, it's not punching you in the face with it, but it's like this, this gradual, more kind of, I don't know, just on a different frequency, um, this gradual effect it has on you which is so, so cool.

I mean, it's, it's, like, like, just hard to, hard to, you know, um, quantify how they kind of create this, this aura and this, this kind of magical feeling that it has that's definitely, like, a, the best hip hop, you know, really strives for that, too.

So I, I think there is a definitely a, you know, a parallel there.

That poem later became the lyrics of the Star Spangled Banner.

While Houston has unofficial anthems, your Z-Ro's Mo City Don Freestyle or DJ Screw's June 27th, the Gatlin Brothers' Houston, it doesn't have an official anthem.

There was an official city song back in the early 20th century, but nothing formal since.

Sure seems like the sort of thing we could have, though, and in that spirit we wanna know, if you were asked to supply some of the lyrics for such a song, what about Houston would you highlight? What would you downplay? What about your life and the lives of your fellow Houstonians should be reflected in such an anthem? What subjects, people, places, experiences, concepts that you see as endemic to life here in greater Houston that you think w- would simply have to be reflected in such a song? Let us know at talk@houstonmatters.org.

Let's go.

Rest in peace to DJ Screw.

Yo, my guy, you win a $100 gift card to Stop and Shop.

Times is hard.

I've barely scratched the surface of this book, but it seems like it's going to be extremely my shit.

I got the new DJ Screw autobiography, or not autobiography, sorry.

The DJ Screw biography by Lance Scott Walker.

So far, it's good.

I don't know.

Okay.

So from my understanding and the little, the tiny bit of research I did, uh, while researching this is basically, uh, this type of, of hip-hop and rap music was created by DJ Screw, and what he did was slow down the tempo of songs and then chop them to get kind of a repeating nature.

It's also a way to represent how you would feel and hear a song when you're under the influence of promethazine or codeine and cough syrup mixed with normally a Sprite or Jolly Rancher, sometimes called lean or sizzurp.

Oh, yeah.

It slows your breathing down and heart rate.

And a number of many famous Texas rappers have died taking lean.

DJ Screw, the original of chop and screw, died of, of a lean overdose, Pimp C of UGK, Fredro Santana, and one of the younger stars who actually had a kind of a banger song with, uh, Eminem, I believe, is Juice WRLD.

No way, really?

Yep.

DJ Screw.

Yes.

Rest in peace.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, instead of zen music from YouTube, she just turns on a little DJ Screw.

Erykah Badu, "On & On (Chopped & Screwed)." It's on YouTube.