Southern Justice for Hip-hop: Houston a Rap Capital?
June 29th, 2010 | Published in Music News | 25 Comments
Southern Justice for Hip-hop: Houston a Rap Capital?
Houston, Texas is home to one of the most prominent and independent hip-hop scenes in the world, largely influencing both gangsta rap and the larger southern hip-hop community.
The man credited with being the central figurehead for the uprising of hip-hop is the late DJ Screw (real name Robert Earl Davis Jr). Screw was the creator and pioneer of a new style of hip-hop, which was christened “screwing” after its creator. This method involves the key tracks of a cut being slowed down when remixed. DJ Screw began making mixtapes of the slowed-down music in the early 1990s. Originally, this process involved mixing two copies of the same record, slowed down either on the turntables using pitch shift or later through use of an after-mixer device. Phasing, flanging and echo effects were originally the result of the two records being played at millisecond intervals.
Many Houston area artists, such as Big Love, Willie D and Ganksta NIP began to incorporate the slowed tempo into rap songs. Willie D’s song “Die”, from the album ‘I’m Goin Out Lika Soldier’, featured a slowed-down sample of the line “all I have is my balls and my word” from the movie ‘Scarface’, well before “screwing” gained more mainstream acceptance.
The genre was associated with both the use of marijuana and the consumption of “syrup”, a cocktail of cough syrup, mixed with the prescription drugs codeine and promethazine (DJ Screw’s death in November 2000 was attributed to either an overdose of codeine, or a gradual build-up of codeine in his body’s system as a result of years spent abusing the drug). This has been credited as influencing the genre’s psychedelic style.
DJ Screw made a significant number of mixtapes (purported to be in the thousands), usually with a theme. This provided a significant outlet for MCs in the South-Houston area, and helped local rappers such as ESG, Lil’ Flip and Z-Ro gain regional and sometimes national prominence, and it is likely that hotels in Houston would have played host to several record labels’ talent spotters eager to check out the genre for themselves.
Early tapes were often “screwed” versions of instrumentals over which rappers would later freestyle, but later tapes were mostly vocal tracks with occasional toasting or freestyle intermissions, and by the time of Screw’s death, the genre had become widely known throughout the southern United States.
Currently, the style is best exemplified in the music of Swishahouse DJ Michael 5000 Watts and Chamilitary DJ OG Ron C. Their work has helped establish current rappers Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, Mike Jones, Slim Thug – all of whom achieved massive mainstream success and placed Houston firmly back on the hip-hop map, as well as rap groups such as The Colour Changin’ Click and The Screwed Up Click. More major recording labels have embraced the genre, and chopped and screwed albums occasionally outsell the unmixed version.
Andrew Regan is an online, freelance author from Scotland. He is a keen rugby player and enjoys travelling.
Slim Thug SHOWS & PROVES hes “Already Platinum “this was in 2004, ALready Platinum back then & Still “Havin Thangs”…..
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June 29th, 2010at 2:07 pm(#)
how tall is Slim Thug?
June 29th, 2010at 2:51 pm(#)
I FUCKING HATE NIGGERS THEY LOOK LIKE APES, THEY STINK, THEY’RE WELFARE JUNKIES, THEY’RE CRIMINALS, THEY MAKE SHITTY MUSIC WITH NO MEANING IN THEIR LYRICS, THEY NEED TO GO BACK TO THEIR NIGGER JUNGLE COUNTRIES LIKE AFRICA, BRING BACK SLAVERY, HANG NIGGERS WITH NOOSES!
June 29th, 2010at 3:31 pm(#)
@TexasCityTx409 why he b always saying cuhz in his songs
June 29th, 2010at 4:31 pm(#)
Hell yeah… someone has to keep it on lock! shit ill wash them rides
June 29th, 2010at 4:56 pm(#)
@roen1ck hell yeah , especially if hes filming this at his old house in rock creek , some people over there call the laws just if they see someone around they dont recognize
June 29th, 2010at 5:26 pm(#)
I’ll pop his big ass fo showing off NY style
June 29th, 2010at 5:50 pm(#)
@MrWorldbefree U A LAME
June 29th, 2010at 5:57 pm(#)
A REAL G
June 29th, 2010at 6:08 pm(#)
damn thug got paper like that
June 29th, 2010at 6:28 pm(#)
Look @ his Fucking white tshirt…i could use that as my bed sheets! Jesus
June 29th, 2010at 6:59 pm(#)
Since you like blue and you have a phantom, did you ever see the Grey Goose Phantom? they only made two of them, but anyway check out my car, You know about slabs but what you know about Pimpmobiles?
June 29th, 2010at 7:45 pm(#)
nice phantom i have 9 of them
June 29th, 2010at 8:18 pm(#)
his neighbors must love him revving a chopper in the middle of the night – can’t be doing that in the suburbs without police being called…
June 29th, 2010at 8:25 pm(#)
keep rippin hard Boss
June 29th, 2010at 9:00 pm(#)
cool guy
June 29th, 2010at 9:56 pm(#)
ya in h-town, but no where else, and only to black people, which are like 15% of the country.
June 29th, 2010at 10:32 pm(#)
in h-twn that deville gets more respect than the phantom to some people if not most, that is if the deville is at slab level, even stock people see through it to what it could be, j.s
lol but the phantom is made by rolls royce, lmao i don’t know where he got bentley from shrugs
June 29th, 2010at 10:50 pm(#)
its a rolls royce you stupid mother fucker, and its worth 10 times as much as a deville
June 29th, 2010at 11:19 pm(#)
ya, slim thug
June 29th, 2010at 11:58 pm(#)
@Dccole3214 know any retards with shit like that in their garage?
June 30th, 2010at 12:20 am(#)
Understand!!!!! Slim was 23 at that time…. “havin thangs”
June 30th, 2010at 1:14 am(#)
lol dat chopper jus 4 show
June 30th, 2010at 2:12 am(#)
fuck the bentley phantom he got a old school deville + el dorado
June 30th, 2010at 2:30 am(#)
HUSTLING PAID OFF !
June 30th, 2010at 2:58 am(#)
is he retarded?