The Screwed & Chopped thread

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stelfox

Beast of Burden
About time we talked about this properly.
Of course, all these mixes are phenomenally hard to get hold of in the UK so I've been turning to slsk for most of what I have, but if anyone has any tips of where to buy (without exhorbitant shipping and customs charges, preferably), I'd be glad to hear of them, likewise with CDs to check out etc
At the moment I'm loving OG Ron C's Fuck Action 40/40.5 and his Spring Break 2K5 mix (his version of Gucci Maine's Icey is a total lazy joy on a hot day like this), the whole of Who Is Mike Jones Screwed & Chopped by DJ Michael Watts (a totally different record to the regular-speed album), a bunch of original DJ Screw tapes (City Of Syrup by Big Moe on As The World Turns Slow being a particular fave) and Swishahouse: The Final Chapter 2K5.
What else should I be listening to and am I safe in saying that this music is getting better and better right now? It certainly seems that way to me compared to back when I first began to take an interest - maybe it's just that I've managed to learn enough to find the good stuff, though.
Posts from people in Houston or anywhere else in Texas especially welcome.
 
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martyturenne

whoismikejones?
michael watts' S&C version of david banner's mississippi is well worth checking. something about banner's production makes it ideal for the S&C treatment; he really is a bluesman, isn't he?
 
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martyturenne

whoismikejones?
also check out watts's S&C versioning of Three 6 Mafia's last album (Da Unbreakables). crazy, scary stuff. here's an description i wrote last year of my favourtie S&C song ever. please excuse the overwriting:

"My favourite Screw song is "Bangen Screw" (available on The Legend, a 2001 Big Tyme Recordz compilation), a typically lachrymose meditation on the hustler’s toil. Backed by a Morricone-style guitar refrain, twitchy snares and corroded synth riffs, four of Houston’s most ferocious MCs harmonise the track’s eponymous refrain to positively frightening effect. Like Bone Thugs-n-Harmony on quaaludes, Screw’s signature song stalks the landscape with equal parts swagger and sorrow, a repentant malefactor’s anthem for troubled times."

and this more generally on the the S&C phenomenon

"The form took its name from Houston’s DJ Screw, who would slow down well-known rap songs to a slug’s pace, distorting and distending each utterance to scarily psychotropic effect. Sounding not unlike tapes being played at half time, Screw’s turntable remixes lent a melancholy air to even the glossiest of tracks, turning braggart MCs’ declarations into pained expressions of fear and loathing."
 
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stelfox

Beast of Burden
martin c, other martin's (CAN WE GET THE OTHER MARTIN ON HERE JUST TO REALLY BLOODY CONFUSE THINGS, PLEASE?!) final para pretty adequately distills what this stuff is.
if you want to hear any of it i'll burn you some up or fileshare it with you.
i think you'll quite like it.
i'm actually planning on going to houston in a month and, all being well, there will be a couple of pretty major pieces out as a result of that trip.
i have the three 6 and the david banner S&C mixes - i love choose me, from Mississippi, in this style, especially.
 
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zhao

there are no accidents
Blackdown said:
can you describe more generally what this stuff is dave?
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I believe they is talkin' southern crunk rap shit. sum real fried chicken n grits bidniss ya heard?
 
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carlos

manos de piedra
well i'm in houston and i wish i could provide more info. S&C mix tapes and CDs are very, very easy to find around here but i can't say i'm too familiar with most of the scene- and i only went to Dj Screw's Screwed Up records for the first time a few weeks ago.

a friend of mine bought me several S&C CDs- the best of which i think was the David Banner Mississipi which was mentioned above. the mix of menace and romance filtered through the queasy slowed-down sound and stuttering chops/edits work really well.
 
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mms

sometimes
the missisipi one from michael watts and swisha house is good.
the fuck action 40 one you recommended is excellent, the screwed and chopped versions of old soul classics sound like some kind of audio necromancy, i tried listening to this in the office and me and a colleague just shifted into some other weird mental state after a while.
i'd like to see it develop like dub i think, its not the greatest music at the moment, it is just some music slowed down and slightly cut up.
 
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jk_gabba

gabba survivor
So whats the most accessable S&C stuff, anyone think the sound could cross over, and is the kinda syrupy sound being used in more conventional hiphop..

I know the new Mike Jones album sounds very screwed, any others..
 
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cooper

Well-known member
mms said:
the missisipi one from michael watts and swisha house is good.
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i agree with this - we ripped this to the xbox and played burnout 3 with that as the soundtrack, and the game slows down dramatically whenever you fuck someone's car up especially well - so whenever that would happen the music would really slip into place and i would think "this is what it must feel like to ride around drinking codeine".

mms said:
i'd like to see it develop like dub i think, its not the greatest music at the moment, it is just some music slowed down and slightly cut up.
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swisha house has started producing things with weird screwed sensibilities, like that mike jones single, but i think the scene stands right now on mainstream rap giving it things to screw down. it seems like it might be one of those musics dedicated to exploring a very particular drug experience.
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
just curious. does it maintain a pretty standard bpm range or does it just depend on what's being screwed?
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
anyone sceptically thinking that in spite of all the novelty factor, screwed music is actually just a gimmick that quickly loses its appeal and generally fails to be the dirty souths equivalent to dub?
 
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stelfox

Beast of Burden
no.
1) the three in the mornin' mix we're talking about is 10 years old.
2) screw died five years ago.
3) more people are making this stuff than ever, well over a decade after if first began, so i'd hardly say it was throwaway novelty music.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
i remember reading an interview with dj screw years ago. he said he was the first dj to have a mixtape sell over a million copies. thats pretty big.
 
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jd_

Well-known member
I-20 always sounds like he's pitched down to me and I think there's some Ludacris tracks where the vocals are like that too, not sure if it's him on them.. I'm hearing more songs on the radio where the vocals sound like they are slowed down but they are regular sounding tracks otherwise.
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
stelfox said:
no.
1) the three in the mornin' mix we're talking about is 10 years old.
2) screw died five years ago.
3) more people are making this stuff than ever, well over a decade after if first began, so i'd hardly say it was throwaway novelty music.
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ive got old dj screw mixtapes at home, i know this stuff is old, but the actual music itself, despite being made now more than before, still has majority novelty appeal, for me at least. its like 'wow lemme hear this song all slow and weird', and thats about the size of it. they dont really get freaky with the C&S stuff enough for me, or tweak it heavily enough, its literally just slowing stuff down for the most part. i know some producers/remixers mess around with it heavily though so maybe i need to hear that stuff more.
 
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