chopped or screwed music is an underground phenomenon centered around Houston and a lot of Texas....most people credit the late Dj Screw for this in which the mixes were severely pitched down so it would sound like a tape deck with the batteries about to die....this actually affected the bass lines in which they would be more promient, a desired effect for those with really loud car stereo systems....Screw would fool around with the pitch controls in his turntables in order to achieve this effect and was reputed to sell so many mixtapes that cars would line up across his house in anticipation of his next mixtape...thus starting the Wreckshop dynasty and the "Scrwed Up Clique"...among the most famous in this genre are Lil KeKe, the late Fat Pat, & Big Moe....it was reputed that a rapper that guested in one of Screw's mixtape would sell at least 20,000 copies in Houston alone....Big Moe's "City Of Syrup" sold (i think???) about 100,000 without airplay in Texas alone before he hit the majors....the screw sound is also augmented by the regional coedine phenomenon in which it has been a drug of choice and many purport it to enhance listening to screw....this was touched upon by UGK and Memphis's "Three Six Mafia" on their 2000 hit "Sippin on some syrup" (syrup being the slang for coedine) and Big Moe's "Purple Stuff" and "Barre Baby"....there's a fm station in houston that has a screwed mix show (the "chopped" refers to the stutter sound done by mixing two copies of the same song, if my mind serves me correctly)..
the slowed-down pitch is also achieved by turning the pitch screw way down on a tape deck for the slurry effect.
if you listen to a lot of the Houston cds, they'll be using terms such as "throwed" which means excellent...as well as "grippin on grain", referring to a woodgrain steering wheel....
Tampa was kind of big on screw music back around the mid-90s, although we call it simply "slowed down" with the likes of Rock-It Rod....once in a while down here, you'll hear a loud car stereo run a slowed-down dirty south cd but nowhere like the mid-90s..
for starters, look at the wreckshop site below.
www.dawreckshop.com
[ June 20, 2003, 09:56 AM: Message edited by: kelvy ]
with well tidings and kind regards,<br /><br />kelvy
Diamond Member
...i do need to make a correction: actually, Dj Screw was part of "screwed up records" and not the wreckshop label...here's the official dj screw site:
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