Tale of the Tapes | 7 Songs from DJ Screw’s Mixtape Catalog
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By Lance Scott Walker
The late DJ Screw left behind a massive trove of mixtapes that together function as a deep dive into hip-hop and R&B from the year 2000 and before—a throwback to the sound of the cassette in all its warbling. Far from being just mixes, these tapes feature a cross section of Houston rappers and aspiring freestylers whose stories were pressed down into the tape as much as their music. Screw laid down the beats and twisted the sounds around as he pleased, passing the mic when he was ready and letting the evening print its course to the cassette. When he was finished recording, he would slow the master down as he made a dub, and then run copies off from that. That’s a couple of generations down, fidelity-wise, but it was right where Screw wanted it. And it was what the people wanted, too, as they lined up outside of his house every day to buy those cassettes. Countless volumes have disappeared over the years, but hundreds more have been preserved by Screwed Up Records & Tapes in Houston, where the Diary Of The Originator series of CDs allows us to go back and listen in to the sound of the streets of Houston, Texas, in the mid-1990s. From the more than 350 chapters in the series, here are a few standouts.
DJ Screw – “Shit Get Wild In The City (Street Military)”
from Hurricane Duck (1995)
Screw always made it a point to mix in local artists on his tapes, and not just those he was making into stars via the freestyles. Street Military was a group that came together from multiple sides of town: a DJ, three MCs, and a jester of sorts whose voice didn’t appear on the recordings but nonetheless was a source of energy in the Houston rap scene. This was Big Duck’s tape, hence its title, and other freestylers on the sessions that night included Big Jut, Macc Grace, and Lil Black. Why is this one special? Listen to the way Screw chops together the verses and the impossibly perfect polyrhythms that surface in the storm. From the voice of Icey Hott, Screw chops up an all-time classic Houston rap lyric: “late at night / smokin’ weed and eatin’ barbecue / nobody fuckin’ with me / nobody fuckin’ with you.”
DJ Screw ft. Fat Pat, Mike-D – “Cold Rock A Party (Freestyle)”
from Niggas Can’t See Me (1996)
MC Lyte had already sampled Diana Ross’s 1980 hit “Upside Down,” slowing it a bit for her 1996 song “Cold Rock A Party.” But Screw took the Rashad “Ringo” Smith-produced instrumental and cranked it down even further for this Fat Pat and Mike-D freestyle. Pat was the loudest, most flamboyant voice in the Screwed Up Click, a juggernaut and superstar in the making before his death in 1998 whose style was the very essence of Screw tapes. Mike-D’s name doesn’t always come up in the same conversation as superstars like Lil’ Keke, Big Pokey, Big Moe, and E.S.G., but he always held his own, and this freestyle displays his chops right alongside his good friend Pat. Masters of the form in the moment, every minute.
DJ Screw ft. Ronnie Spencer – “Freestyle”
from Dancing Candy (1996)
This is Screw tape legend Ronnie Spencer, not freestyle rapping but freestyle singing, in just another example of the magic that happened at Screw’s house in the spare bedroom they called “the wood room.” While June 27th is arguably DJ Screw’s most famous tape, Dancing Candy has a special place in the pantheon because it’s a prequel of sorts. Most Screw tapes were “personal” tapes chartered by one person who provided Screw with a list of songs and brought other artists in to freestyle over the beats he laid down. Dancing Candy was made for DeMo Sherman, who selected all the tracks and freestylers but fell asleep during the recording. When he woke up, he told Screw he wanted to come back and record another tape on his birthday: June 27, 1996.
DJ Screw – “Can’t Stand The Rain (Missy Elliot)”
from Still A G At 27 (1997)
Screw was a big fan of Missy and mixed many of her songs onto his tapes (“Sock It 2 Me,” “All In My Grill”). But you’d be hard-pressed to find an instance when he was more enthusiastic with his scratches and cuts than on this one, which samples Missy’s Timbaland-produced “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” sliced between Dub C with Crime Boss and 2Pac’s “My Ambitions As A Rider.” Listen to it twice, back to back. Might as well, because it’ll be stuck in your head after one listen anyway.
DJ Screw – “These Are The Days (Bone Thugs)”
from Endonesia (1997)
DJ Screw – “These Are The Days (Bone Thugs)”
from Blasphemy (1997)
One group that DJ Screw was slowing down just so he could hear what they were saying was Cleveland’s Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Their sound, equal parts hip-hop and R&B, opened up tremendously under his touch. Listen to both of these versions. The first one is mostly about Screw blasting the volume and cranking it down, while the second, longer version keeps you thirsty for what you heard in the first version, not getting there until the end, bringing you to a very specific place that is very much worth the wait.
DJ Screw – “If You Think You’re Lonely (Bobby Womack)”
from Late Night Fuckin Yo Bitch (1995)
Here’s an example of Screw finding just the right song to fit between just the right songs, at just the right speed. It’s his twist on another Cleveland star’s music, but this time it’s a B-side that became a hit: 1981’s “If You Think You’re Lonely Now.” Screw dug in the crates for the songs he sandwiched it between, too. Janet Jackson’s “Anytime Anyplace” from 1993 preceded it, and Bobby Brown’s “All Day All Night” from 1998 followed on the way toward closing out the album. Screw’s youth was spent listening to his mother play records, and most of the songs on Late Night reflect her years collecting late-70s and early-80s funk and R&B records. The Womack LP no doubt came from her collection. Maybe it even had scratches on it from where he marked it up with a screw to silence the songs he didn’t like. (After all, that’s how he got the name DJ Screw.) Late Night Fuckin Yo Bitch is one of Screw’s most popular mixes. He doesn’t talk on it, and he doesn’t really scratch or chop on it. He just lets the songs play, showing that he was as much a curator as he was a savage DJ. At the root of it all, Screw knew the sound he wanted to put down, and that sound was what brought the lines of cars to his house every day to buy tapes.
Lance Scott Walker is orginally from Texas and is now based in New York. He is the author of DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution and Houston Rap Tapes and collaborated on the companion photo book Houston Rap. He has written for the Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, Red Bull Music Academy, Vice, Wondering Sound, Fader, and The Wire.
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