DJ SCREW: A LIFE IN SLOW REVOLUTION - LANCE SCOTT WALKER

I was very excited to hear that someone was writing a book about DJ Screw, a figure, like J Dilla, who’s influence and renown within hip-hop far outranks his popular fame, even if people vaguely have the idea of slowing down music being a Texas thing and related to screw. Funnily, there is a whole minor theme in the book where Screw and his friends in the Screwed Up Click continually insist that “Chopped and Screwed” cannot be a genre since only records created by DJ Screw can qualify, despite what others may sound like. I believe I was expecting a more straightforward biography and discussion of Screw and Houston culture but this book, insted, is more in-line with Please Kill Me, in that it’s an oral history of a scene in a particular time and place. Walker does a good job talking to everyone and, while Screw died before he finished the book, he also manages to comb through the interviews that Screw did conduct before he died and weaves in Screw’s voice as well. The places where Walker writes in a more traditional non-fiction style, to give context are quite good and I wish they were longer. For example, when discussion Screw’s slowed down sound he gives a brief history of slowed music that includes a DJ named Darryl Scott that was doing something similar in Houston right before Screw, as well as a Miami DJ named Disco Dave who was making “Drag Tapes” in Miami over a decade before Screw and a whole genre I’d never heard of out of Monterrey called Cumbia Rebajada, exemplified by Gabriel “Sonido” Dueñez, that slows down Cumbia music (it’s really fucking good, I’m listening to it right now). There’s a digression about codeine syrup and it’s heavy association with the scene, despite the fact that everyone seems to agree that Screw’s drug a choice was PCP. He includes an interesting fact about the people in Houston at the time preferring Barre to Activas, and the ways this habit has rippled out into hip-hop and pop culture more broadly. Honestly, I could have used more of this stuff. Walker is a good writer and gets what made Screw unique. It wasn’t about just slowing the music down, anyone can do that on their YouTube settings. Screw, as a DJ first and foremost, was a genius at record selections (I love his love of E-40), layering records on top of themselves to create an immensely dense and heavy vibe, and repeating lines, both musically and lyrically, in exciting and unexpected ways that let you burrow deep into a song you might have heard 100 times before. Additionally, the scene, both the Screwed Up Click and the greater Houston hip-hop community, that he cultivated and guided is often overlooked in discussions of his work and should be included in any list of his accomplishments. Hopefully, this is only the first of many books exploring his work and influence, the vein is rich. As always with these things, there were a number of small interesting details that Walker manages to pack in. For instance, Cash Money Records were early in recognizing Screw’s influence and sent him records to get featured on tapes and did their first out-of-NOLA in-store signing at Screwed Up Tapes and Records. Also, the last record Screw listened to was Nevermind, which he apparently loved. Tragic that we were denied a Chopped and Screwed Nirvana placement. 356 Screw Tapes