DJ Screw

DJ Screw was an American hip-hop DJ and producer from Houston, Texas, best known as the originator of the «chopped and screwed» technique — slowing tracks down and manipulating the turntables to create a woozy, hypnotic remix style that became inseparable from Houston's musical identity. Beginning in the late 1980s, he built his reputation through hundreds of mixtapes known as The Official Screw-Tape Mixtape Series, sampling and reworking songs across hip-hop, R&B and soul.

He founded the Screwed Up Click, a loose collective of Houston rappers including Pimp C, Lil' Keke, Fat Pat, Big Pokey, Big Moe and Big Hawk, whose freestyles and collaborations filled his tapes and helped define the city's distinct rap sound of the 1990s. His mixtapes, often traded on cassette and later on CD, became a cultural institution in Houston, with fans lining up at his home studio to purchase them directly.

His chopped and screwed technique went on to influence a wide swath of hip-hop production far beyond Texas, shaping the slowed-down, syrupy aesthetics later heard in trap and cloud rap. DJ Screw died in 2000, but his catalog and technique remain foundational to Southern hip-hop, and Houston continues to honor his legacy as one of the genre's most original innovators.