Mike D invented screwed music.

[Pootytang]

I don't know if this has ever been brought to light, but Mike D invented screwed music with the release of "It's Always True" in 1989.

Back in 1992 or 93, DJ Screw released a cd of rap music with the voices slowed down and the music would variate in speed. It caught on in the south like wild fire. Soon Swisha House came out with their own variations of screw style cd's. Now there are a bundle of production companies trying to copy this style.

Personally, I like only a hand full of artist that release their music in "screwed and chopped" style. It surely isn't for everyone.

[Micodin]

Theres a lot of people in Houston and the south that would love to kick your ass over a statement like that. Just sayin'.

[Pootytang]

Which statement are you talking about?

[Laver1969]

Which statement are you talking about?

I think the statement Micodin is referring to is where you said, "I don't know if this has ever been brought to light". People in Houston and the south are probably pissed that you're bringing this out in the open. :p

[Pootytang]

The original song I mentioned is also known as "Some Dumb Cop Gave Me 2 Tickets Already".

[Mcmac]

thats a good song when u put it in fast motion

[Micodin]

I don't know if this has ever been brought to light, but Mike D invented screwed music with the release of "It's Always True" in 1989.



That is what might be offensive to some people. Not me so much, I could give a rats ass. But giving someone else credit for something they obviously didnt create is dumb.

But while your at it... I'm responsible for inventing 'No Spill Salt and Pepper' shakers, Milk Crates, Asics Shoes, and the Roland MC-505 Groovebox. Where do I pick up my check?

[Pootytang]

That is what might be offensive to some people. Not me so much, I could give a rats ass. But giving someone else credit for something they obviously didnt create is dumb.

I think you are sadly mistaken. Listen to the song "Some Dumb Cop Gave Me 2 Tickets Already" and tell me that is not screwed.

[Pootytang]

OH yeah and by the way, I live about 2 hours away from Houston. I remember the first day I ever heard a "Screw" tape and my first thought was that Mike D had done this already on a song.


I do realize that DJ Screw perfected what we know as "Screw music".

[pshabi]

Ehhhhh, tomato / tomahto.

Screwed music is whack anyway.

[paul jones]

Mike D invented kids tearing off Volkswagon badges of the cars in 1987 (y)

[pshabi]

Mike D invented kids tearing off Volkswagon badges of the cars in 1987 (y)
And that gem, folks, is how you get a post count in the 4,000s.

[paul jones]

And that gem, folks, is how you get a post count in the 4,000s.
yeah,my post count would be about 20,000 by now if it not for the board crashes of the past but yeah,4000 feels good

[Elusive]

yea I returned to the board after a hiatus to find my post count minus a thousand or two. they did it on purpose, as a demotion for deserting the board.
actually....no, they didnt. no one noticed me being gone.

[Micodin]

OH yeah and by the way, I live about 2 hours away from Houston. I remember the first day I ever heard a "Screw" tape and my first thought was that Mike D had done this already on a song.


I do realize that DJ Screw perfected what we know as "Screw music".


Chopped and screwed is a term that refers to a certain technique of remixing hip-hop music by slowing the tempo and applying various DJ techniques such as skipping beats, record scratching, stop-time, and sending portions of the music through stand-alone effects to make a "chopped-up" version of the original song.

"Chopped and screwed" music first appeared on late night/early morning hip hop programming on radio stations in Houston, Texas sometime before the year 2000. This technique is supposedly named after its originator, DJ Screw but reportedly dates back as far as the early 1980's in Memphis, Tennessee's popular Memphis rap music.

The style is exemplified in the music of Swishahouse artists such as Mike Jones, Paul Wall, and Slim Thug, along with Chamillionaire and others. Essentially the song is slowed down (screwed) and then heavily mixed and scratched (chopped) to create a distinctive style that is supposedly meant to imitate the effects of various recreational drugs such as marijuana or "syrup."


You being only 2 hours from Houston should know that it "dates back as far as the early 1980's" , not 1989 when the Beastie Boys came out with 'Some Dumb Cop Gave Me Two Tickets Already'...

Just sayin'.

[Pootytang]

In the originial state of Screwed music, chopped wasn't available. It wasn't until a little bit later that chopping was performed to the music.

Gangsta rap didn't really hit until the early to mid 90's. Hint, hint. Screwed music started with gangsta rap.

[Laver1969]

Isn't Al Goldstein involved somehow in this screw conversation? :p

[Micodin]

Gangsta rap didn't really hit until the early to mid 90's. Hint, hint. Screwed music started with gangsta rap.


Your knowledge of hip-hop music is a joke. Schooly D created gangsta rap in the early 80's. Not the mid 90's as you claim. NWA, Ice-T, Schooly D, and the Geto Boys all had succesful records before the 90's even hit. So that blows that theory out of the water.

Los Angeles' Ice T is often credited as the first gangsta rapper due to his influential "Sixn' da Mornin'" and other aggressive, gritty recordings (like Rhyme Pays, 1987), though many other artists such as Philadelphia's Schoolly D (The Adventures of Schoolly D, 1987, and the song 'PSK'), Kool G Rap ("It's a Demo", "I'm Fly"), NWA and BDP's first album Criminal Minded are crucial to the foundations of the genre. Gangsta rap is usually credited as being an originally West Coast phenomenon, due to the influence of Ice-T and N.W.A., though Schoolly D, BDP and Kool G Rap are East Coast rappers. Other major influences include the pioneering hardcore work of politically-aware performers like Public Enemy (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 1988), Ice Cube (AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, 1990) and Boogie Down Productions (Criminal Minded, 1987)

And here is where you contradict yourself. You said... and I quote...

"I don't know if this has ever been brought to light, but Mike D invented screwed music with the release of "It's Always True" in 1989."

Actually the record was called "Some Dumb Cop Gave Me 2 Tickets Already" and it was a b-side on the Shadrach 12".

But then you say gangsta rap and screwed music didnt hit till the mid 90's. Which one is it? DJ Screw learned how to make Screwed music by messing with the pitch control on his turntable while listening to a H-Town record. Other southern hip-hop acts were making slowed down records in the 80's. Its all basic hip-hop knowledge.

So in short... Mike D didnt create screwed music in '89. Because if you want to credit that track as the first screwed record... credit would go to the Dust Brothers and the Beastie Boys because they all help produce that record. Not just Mike D.

And Gangsta rap hit in the early 80's not the mid 90's as you claim. Thats just common knowledge. Damn, people were rocking Schooly D's and Ice-T's rhymes way before the 90's.

[Burnout18]

i didnt hear anythign chopped and screwed until i heard some shit from lil flip a year ago... i never realized it had such a past.

[cj hood]

Your knowledge of hip-hop music is a joke. Schooly D created gangsta rap in the early 80's. Not the mid 90's as you claim. NWA, Ice-T, Schooly D, and the Geto Boys all had succesful records before the 90's even hit. So that blows that theory out of the water.

Los Angeles' Ice T is often credited as the first gangsta rapper due to his influential "Sixn' da Mornin'" and other aggressive, gritty recordings (like Rhyme Pays, 1987), though many other artists such as Philadelphia's Schoolly D (The Adventures of Schoolly D, 1987, and the song 'PSK'), Kool G Rap ("It's a Demo", "I'm Fly"), NWA and BDP's first album Criminal Minded are crucial to the foundations of the genre. Gangsta rap is usually credited as being an originally West Coast phenomenon, due to the influence of Ice-T and N.W.A., though Schoolly D, BDP and Kool G Rap are East Coast rappers. Other major influences include the pioneering hardcore work of politically-aware performers like Public Enemy (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 1988), Ice Cube (AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, 1990) and Boogie Down Productions (Criminal Minded, 1987)

And here is where you contradict yourself. You said... and I quote...

"I don't know if this has ever been brought to light, but Mike D invented screwed music with the release of "It's Always True" in 1989."

Actually the record was called "Some Dumb Cop Gave Me 2 Tickets Already" and it was a b-side on the Shadrach 12".

But then you say gangsta rap and screwed music didnt hit till the mid 90's. Which one is it? DJ Screw learned how to make Screwed music by messing with the pitch control on his turntable while listening to a H-Town record. Other southern hip-hop acts were making slowed down records in the 80's. Its all basic hip-hop knowledge.

So in short... Mike D didnt create screwed music in '89. Because if you want to credit that track as the first screwed record... credit would go to the Dust Brothers and the Beastie Boys because they all help produce that record. Not just Mike D.
And Gangsta rap hit in the early 80's not the mid 90's as you claim. Thats just common knowledge. Damn, people were rocking Schooly D's and Ice-T's rhymes way before the 90's.

yo einstein.....what about Just Ice???? the original gangsta of hiphop!!!

[Elusive]

dork fight!!!

[Micodin]

yo einstein.....what about Just Ice???? the original gangsta of hiphop!!!


Look moron, dont even try to get in this convo with your lame ass facts. Schooly D was the first hip-hop cat to make gangsta records. Just-Ice first single came out in 1986 it was called "Cold Gettin' Dumb.". Schooly D first singles "Gangster Boogie and Maniac" came out in 1984 on Schooly D's own record label. The songs were about smoking weed, guns, and stealing. The first gangsta hip-hop songs on wax. Fact.



Anything else Hood? Or can you finally say you were wrong about something?

[cj hood]

just-ice was labeled hiphop's original gangsta whether his early releases reflected it or not......and we know that there were 'real gangsters' makin hiphop from hiphop's inception.......so to determine the first gangster rapper, you gotta ask:

are we talkin about lyrics?
the mc?
official releases?

[Pootytang]

I never said that the first gangsta rap album or song was released or made in the mid 90's. I said that gangsta rap didn't hit until the early to mid 90's. You took what I said out of context.

You must not read well because I corrected myself on the title of the song in question. I do believe that it is called under both names anyways. I have a few cd's/albums, official and bootleg, that call it by both names.

That shadrach 12" you mention is actually called "An Exciting Evening at Home..."

I am done discussing this subject with an irrational bastard like yourself. When you prove to me when the first screw tape was made, I will say I was wrong.

How old or you and where are you from?

[Micodin]

How old or you and where are you from?


I'm 31 years old, I'm from south Philly (now living in Maine), and yeah, I've been listening to hip-hop for a while. Like '84 or some shit.

I am a bastard, at least I'm not a moron thats pop's wack shit on a message board and trys to talk about shit I have no clue about.

And if I need Beastie Boys cred... I've been to 9 shows and my friend Seth and I met the Boys last year on the tour... and had songs requests played for us.

I'm right, you guys are wrong. I'm mad bored of this now. I'm moving on.

Just sayin'.

[cj hood]

I'm 31 years old, I'm from south Philly (now living in Maine), and yeah, I've been listening to hip-hop for a while. Like '84 or some shit.

I am a bastard, at least I'm not a moron thats pop's wack shit on a message board and trys to talk about shit I have no clue about.

And if I need Beastie Boys cred... I've been to 9 shows and my friend Seth and I met the Boys last year on the tour... and had songs requests played for us.

I'm right, you guys are wrong. I'm mad bored of this now. I'm moving on.

Just sayin'.


i'm more hiphop than you.....everyday all day!

[Micodin]

i'm more hiphop than you.....everyday all day!


Not really, since you didnt even know when the first gangsta rap record came out. Fat bastard. Admit your wrong for once and get off your own limp dick.

And yeah, I've heard you rap records Hood. You posted them a while back... WACK!!!!!! You suck so bad! You need to stop feeding your fat self, and work on those rhymes... Sucka!


Hows that for T.R.U.T.H. ?

Loser! I think E Double said it best... Get the Bozack, Get the Bozack, Get the Bo-o-o-o-Zack! Sucker!

You got nothing for me, Hood. Punk. Keep working on those wack demos. Maybe you can be the new Tony D. A fat white guy that cant rhyme.

"cause I got more flavor than stove top stuffin'"

[cj hood]

you're 31, right?

[beastieibe]

im mo' hip hop then all yall wack mo fuckas out there
just sayin'

[Weezman]

"cause I got more flavor than stove top stuffin'"

Stuffin’ buddy... :rolleyes:

[Pootytang]

Micodin, read the first line of the 7th paragraph of this page.

damn, I forgot the link. Here you go:

http://dfwunderground.org/News-Article110.htm

[Micodin]

I'm just fessin with Hood and Pooty... I got love for you guys. We all love hip-hop, lets not fight.



I apologize. My bad. I dont want to keep hating. You guys are B-Boy fans.. so that must make you rock!


Just for the record tho... I did like that Tony D track "Check the Elevation"

just sayin'.

[cj hood]

I'm just fessin with Hood and Pooty... I got love for you guys. We all love hip-hop, lets not fight.



I apologize. My bad. I dont want to keep hating. You guys are B-Boy fans.. so that must make you rock!


Just for the record tho... I did like that Tony D track "Check the Elevation"

just sayin'.


that's a 180......you don't have to agree with me, but personal attacks are weak........but it's over!

[paulb]

Micodin, read the first line of the 7th paragraph of this page.

damn, I forgot the link. Here you go:

http://dfwunderground.org/News-Article110.htm

Micodin got powned!

[Weezman]

Micodin got powned!


Thats what we're here for....to live and learn....from eachother. I didn't know that shit. I got took back 2 school by pooty too!!

I was siding with Micadin, he did shed alot of info.....full of energy. Some facts, its all good....happy to be here. :p

But yeah, like CJ said .....its over. :rolleyes:

[splatter-house]

I'm gonna jump in on this one. Can someone explain to me what the point of this 'screwing' thing is? I downloaded a 'screwed' track that someone recommended to me, and it was just the original song slowed and pitched down. Wtf is so good or interesting about that? Since when was pitching records down an interesting remixing technique?

Am I missing something here? Perhaps someone can fill me in.

[Micodin]

Micodin, read the first line of the 7th paragraph of this page.

damn, I forgot the link. Here you go:

http://dfwunderground.org/News-Article110.htm



Yeah, I read it. No where did it claim that Mike D invented 'screwed music' as you claimed in your first post. Nor does it claim that 'gangsta rap' hit in the mid 90's.

So, yeah. Your still wrong.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screwed_Music

****Memphis rap dates back to the early 1980s. Crunk artists such as Lil Jon have stated in interviews that their influence for crunk came from Memphis. Before Texas' Mike Jones and Paul Wall of Swishahouse Records made chopped and screwed popular, Memphis was "choppin' & screwin'" music back in the early 1980s when DJs would mix together and slow down vinyl albums and blend in their own basslines over a popular song or phrase such as the famous words "Say hello to my little friend" off the movie Scarface. This concept and Memphis rap were pioneered by early Memphis DJs such as Ray the Jay, Spanish Fly, DJ BK, DJ Paul, and many others.****



So yeah... the "early 1980s" not 1989 when "Some Dumb Cop Gave Me 2 Tickets Already" or mid 90's as you claim.

i guess i got "powned" again....


i'm only keeping this going out of boredom....

[Weezman]

what....over? did you say, over?!

NOthinG is OveR till We DeCide it iS!!!!! :eek:

[Pootytang]

I have proven the point I needed to make, the point about screwed music. As for the rest of the statements you are claiming I am wrong about, the timelines are just commonly known facts. Facts such as Gangsta rap really hit when Dr Dre's "The Chronic" hit the air waves. Yes, there was lots of gangsta rap albums before this, but this is what made it explode or hit.

My bad, I just read your link about it possibly dating back to the 80's in the memphis music scene.

I guess you are right after all.

[Weezman]

I have proven the point I needed to make, the point about screwed music. As for the rest of the statements you are claiming I am wrong about, the timelines are just commonly known facts. Facts such as Gangsta rap really hit when Dr Dre's "The Chronic" hit the air waves. Yes, there was lots of gangsta rap albums before this, but this is what made it explode or hit.


I dont know about that one Pooty....Dre did hit before the 90's .

with N.W.A. eazy-E, ice-cube, yella, MC ren. ....there were big and BANNED on MTV. Had run-ins with the feds. That was REALLY big. 87-89? not sure about the dates.....but i know it was before the 90's....just saying.....i got mad respect for you POOT. :D

[Micodin]

****Memphis rap dates back to the early 1980s. Crunk artists such as Lil Jon have stated in interviews that their influence for crunk came from Memphis. Before Texas' Mike Jones and Paul Wall of Swishahouse Records made chopped and screwed popular, Memphis was "choppin' & screwin'" music back in the early 1980s when DJs would mix together and slow down vinyl albums and blend in their own basslines over a popular song or phrase such as the famous words "Say hello to my little friend" off the movie Scarface. This concept and Memphis rap were pioneered by early Memphis DJs such as Ray the Jay, Spanish Fly, DJ BK, DJ Paul, and many others.****





Did you fail to read that Pooty? It's me schooling you! Just sayin'.

[Pootytang]

I dont know about that one Pooty....Dre did hit before the 90's .

with N.W.A. eazy-E, ice-cube, yella, MC ren. ....there were big and BANNED on MTV. Had run-ins with the feds. That was REALLY big. 87-89? not sure about the dates.....but i know it was before the 90's....just saying.....i got mad respect for you POOT. :D

[Micodin]

Ouch. Someone is cranky. I was just trying to get the facts straight.

No worries.

By the way, 'Straight Out Of Compton' and 'Eazy Does It' and Ice-T's records were all successful gangsta records, and they came out before the 90's.

Just sayin'.

[Lex Diamonds]

Gangsta rap really hit when Dr Dre's "The Chronic" hit the air waves. Yes, there was lots of gangsta rap albums before this, but this is what made it explode or hit.
You are wrong. The Chronic was the offset of West Coast G-Funk, yes. But this was a small category of Gangsta Rap, and original gangsta rap had been going since the early 80's in New York City.

[YoungRemy]

"Chopped and screwed" was popularized in Houston, no matter what anyone from Memphis says...

theres a feature article in Rolling Stone this month about all of this, incidentally...



Forget the Bronx or Compton -- the hottest sounds in hip-hop are coming straight outta Houston
By GAVIN EDWARDS

Mike Jones, Houston's most successful rapper right now, can pinpoint the moment -- just a few months ago -- when he knew that his hometown scene had spread beyond city limits. "I started doing shows in Alaska," he says.

In Alaska, "screwed and chopped" would be instructions to a lumberjack or maybe a short-order cook. But in Houston, it's the bedrock of a unique brand of hip-hop, a more soulful Dirty South sound that's now going national, with albums from Jones and Slim Thug reaching the Billboard Top Five. A screwed-and-chopped remix slows down the beats of a familiar track until they're thunderclaps and the vocals until they're the rumble of a brontosaurus herd. Its woozy, sedated sound is the perfect backdrop for slowly cruising around a sprawling, overheated city.

"It's not enough to say that Houston is hip-hop's Seattle," says Todd Moscowitz, president of Asylum Records, which in recent months has signed up literally dozens of artists in Houston, many in partnership with the local label Swishahouse, home to Jones, remixer Michael "5000" Watts and Houston's token white rapper, DJ Paul Wall. "The music culture is so deep. It's a whole lifestyle -- the car culture, the way they dress, the jewelry in the mouth -- that's part of what captivates people."

Moscowitz observes that the rest of the country is getting a crash course in Houston's greatest hits: "People are now taking old classic Houston records, flipping them and taking the hooks." He laughs at this summer's feeding frenzy, the laugh of somebody who has already placed a winning bet. "Houston's hot! Let's run to catch the train!"

There was rap in Houston before screw music, most notably the Geto Boys, who first hit in 1991 with the paranoid classic "Mind Playin' Tricks on Me," and that group's leader, Scarface, who has had a long solo career. But in the mid-Nineties, DJ Screw released hundreds of home-brewed mix tapes, turning gangsta rap into something much trippier -- and inventing a genre. Screw (born Robert Earl Davis Jr.) promoted his tapes as the sonic equivalent of drinking prescription cough syrup; he died, by most accounts, of a syrup overdose himself in 2000. But a screwed-and-chopped remix is still mandatory locally: Mike Jones' hit album Who Is Mike Jones? has one, as does Slim Thug's recent smash Already Platinum.

Out-of-towners who have gotten screwed include Lil Jon, the Game and even the Transplants, the speedy punk side project from Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Blink-182's Travis Barker. DJ Paul Wall says, "A lot of artists do it to gain Houston fans, but what they're really doing is promoting screwed-and-chopped music."

Wall, born Paul Slayton twenty-four years ago, is driving his silver Mercedes through the University of Houston campus. Slouching back in the seat, wearing a white football jersey and jeans shorts, he looks like he could still be an undergraduate. But he has become a local favorite, both as a rapper and a remixer; more than one local fan was impressed by Wall's skills on the radio and then went to a live show, only to be surprised that it was a white guy rapping. His album The People's Champ (out September 13th) is expected to vault him to the same echelon of stardom as the other two rappers on "Still Tippin'," Jones and Slim. "Tippin'," a regional hit in 2004, has slowly burned its way across the country.

"Technically," Wall says, "if DJ Screw didn't do it, it's not screwed. It's just slowed down." He continues, "Growing up, I never understood why they played everything so fast on the radio. I always thought of screw as another flavor, like lemonade or Diet Coke."

Wall goes on: "Screw music is more of a religion. DJ Screw fans -- we call them screwheads. If you tell them you don't like the music, they will fight you and you might get shot at."

That religion's sacrament has been illegally obtained cough syrup (or "sizzyrup"). We're not talking Robitussin but the codeine-laced variety intended for patients with lung cancer. Wall says that screw music evokes the feeling of being stoned on syrup, the same way a pot smoker might get a buzz off a regular cigarette. If you're a "drink man," you go to the syrup dealer, who delivers it in prescription bottles or mini baby bottles. "People mix it with Snapple or Hawaiian Punch," Wall says. "Whatever you prefer. We use Sprite, but I started trying root beer for something different. Or Sunkist. We don't like the new Sprite ReMix, the Aruba Jam."

We pass by some anonymous student housing; Wall identifies it as the location of the video for "Still Tippin'," the Mike Jones single that featured Wall and Slim Thug. The track, built around a haunting violin lick, is soaked in Houston's car culture. It's not screwed, but it has the languid pace of screw music. The chorus "Still tippin' on four-fours," sampled from an old Slim Thug freestyle, means "still driving with '84 Cadillac rims." The prized rims sell for three or four thousand a set, but Wall warns, "You wear them the wrong place, they'll put a gun to your head and steal them. You usually see them on the cars of fearless young kids or OGs."

Perfectly styled Houston cars are "draped up and dripped out": They sometimes feature a trunk left ajar, showing off interior neon lights. About ten years ago, when there was a lot of bad blood in Houston -- people think it began when Northsiders started stealing Southsiders' cars -- the North rolled in blue cars, the South in red. These days, the color war is over and people trick out their cars in whatever candy color they want.

We drive north, into the Rosewood district. Wall grew up in a middle-class northern suburb (although he says times were often hard for him, because his biological father was a "dope fiend"). For a long time, Houston's hip-hop scene was based on the south side of town, where the Screwed-Up Click did business. If you wanted to buy a screw tape or see a show, you'd have to come south. It's all decentralized now, and part of the reason is that Michael Watts founded Swishahouse Records on the Northside and signed up all the talent in his part of town.

"As you can see, there's a lot of drug addicts around here," Wall says conversationally as we drive down Homestead Road. Outside a check-cashing place stands an emaciated man with his shirt off. The city's unzoned sprawl includes some rough sections: Houston's murder rate is double the national average. Wall steers through some narrow back roads, crowded with small single-story houses, and points out the Swishahouse, which looks the same as every other house on the block. A neighbor comes over to say hello; he has a teardrop tattooed next to his eye.

Wall cruises over to the Sharpstown Center mall; just inside the main entrance is his jewelry store, TV Jewelry. The shop still has the black-and-white tiles that reveal its previous tenant, an Auntie Anne's Pretzels. The stock includes iced-out pendants of Jesus where diamonds festoon his hair, beard and crown of thorns. But the house specialty is another Houston favorite: grilles.

Only three or four years ago, if you wanted to flash gold and diamonds when you smiled, you'd have to knock out some incisors or file down some teeth to glue on the caps. (There were also temporary caps that you could bend over your teeth, but they were prone to coming off if you chewed gum.) The latest models of grilles, though, are essentially high-end retainers that slip over your teeth. They're doing well all over the South, but they're especially popular in Houston. Wall got into the business because he wanted to be able to afford his own grille; he did so well as a salesman, he ended up going into a partnership with jeweler Johnny Dang. It's an American success story: a white kid immersed in black culture, teamed up with a Vietnamese immigrant. They used to do all the molds by hand together, but now they have a backroom operation with state-of-the-art kilns and thirty-two employees capable of turning out 400 to 500 grilles a day. Master P and Chingy have bought grilles from Wall -- Lil Jon dropped $50,000 on two at once.

"At this point, I'm rapping to promote the jewelry store," Wall admits. "I like to make music, but I don't like to rap. I like to DJ." Wall describes himself as a tireless proponent of Houston hip-hop -- the guy who owned 150 screw tapes and was always willing to hand out fliers for shows or peddle mix tapes. That work ethic has made him friends all around town; some people jokingly call him "the mayor."

Wall heads to the Sound Check music complex, a grungy rehearsal space with a framed copy of Born to Run in the bathroom. Behind a door labeled seattle is Wall's studio, filled with a dozen producers and friends, including his guest Slim Thug, a.k.a. Boss Hogg but born Stayve Thomas. Slim, six-foot-six, lounges on a couch with one arm around his beautiful girlfriend, LeToya Luckett (an original member of Destiny's Child -- who also come from Houston). He's passing on some music-industry wisdom to Wall: "You gotta do the radio shit, man."

Slim and Wall trade stories about Mike Jones, and how for a time he called himself "Sache" (pronounced like Versace). "He got that tattooed," Wall says, "but it looked like a jailhouse tattoo. He did it himself."

"When I first knew Mike Jones," Slim says, "he used to hook me up with phones. He always had the two-ways and the new Sprint phones."

Slim has had a ten-year career in Houston. Still only twenty-four, he's just made his national debut with a much-delayed album that has many tracks produced by the Neptunes; it's a high-gloss, L.A. version of the Houston sound. "Man, I've been messing with Pharrell," Slim says. "They want to be in L.A. or Miami; they don't want to come to Houston. They got to do the fly spots." Today, however, during a brief interlude before he goes back on the road, Slim too is concerned with his nonmusical business. For Slim, it's real estate: He owns two record stores and is discussing an expansion into shoe stores.

"Everybody says I'm money-hungry," Slim says a little sheepishly. "It might be true. When I see money, it's like Christmas."

Working in another studio on the other side of town is Bun B, half of the legendary Houston rap duo UGK, finishing up a solo record. (His UGK partner, producer Pimp C, is serving time for an assault conviction but is up for parole in December.) Bun B, a Houston veteran at age thirty-one, born Bernard Freeman, has an easy charm and enough business savvy to offer a nuanced history of the local distribution system. (In short: The collapse of a major distributor a few years back forced local artists and labels to build up their own distribution channels, which made them more astute when the major labels came back around.) Today, however, he is working on tracks for his forthcoming album, Trill, and planning a video with John Tucker, who under the name Dr. Teeth has directed most of the Houston hip-hop videos.

Bun says he always wanted to do a video where he would arrive for a gig via helicopter, but his record company's response was "Can't you get in a Cadillac and ride through the hood?" He shakes his head. "Man, I'm tired of the hood. I want to see choppers and ladders!"

The treatment on Tucker's laptop, however, reads, "Bun B hops into a low rider old school Cadillac drop top . . . "

The conversation turns to cough syrup. Bun has been trying to figure out whether it was responsible for his recent gain of about forty pounds in six months. "I was sipping, but it was sociable," he says. "But then I started buying . . . " After further thought, he decides that mixing the syrup with soda was behind the weight gain, although the codeine-laced syrup has other nasty side effects; in Bun's case, it was screwing up his kidneys.

Asked if screw music's success was based on the popularity of syrup, Bun says no. "The music caught on a lot faster than the syrup," he says. "I could go to Wal-Mart and pop a screw tape in the stereo, but I couldn't go to a bar and ask for syrup." He says that screw music reflects the local vibe, which is laid-back: "You gotta have that cutthroat mentality in New York. But the average life of a Texan is not that intense. He can look at life slowly. He doesn't want to expend that much energy listening to a record at night."

[Weezman]

im just here like yaw'll ...having a good time talking about music....but heres what i found.....

ICE - T ...is often credited as the first gangsta rapper due to his influential "Sixn' da Mornin'" and other aggressive, gritty recordings (like Rhyme Pays, 1987), though many other artists such as Philadelphia's Schoolly D (The Adventures of Schoolly D, 1987, and the song 'PSK'), Kool G Rap ("It's a Demo", "I'm Fly"), NWA and BDP's first album Criminal Minded are crucial to the foundations of the genre. Gangsta rap is usually credited as being an originally West Coast phenomenon, due to the influence of Ice-T and N.W.A., though Schoolly D, BDP and Kool G Rap are East Coast rappers. Other major influences include the pioneering hardcore work of politically-aware performers like Public Enemy (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 1988), Ice Cube (AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, 1990) and Boogie Down Productions (Criminal Minded, 1987), and the similarly "poetic gangsta" prose and poetry of Ice-T's namesake, Iceberg Slim, and the Lightning Rod album Hustler's Convention. Kool G Rap's epic tales helped inspire the related Mafioso rap phenomenon, which later achieved some mainstream success and great critical acclaim in 1995 (see 1995 in music) with albums like Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and AZ's Do or Die and Mobb Deep's The Infamous.


Hip hop moves west and gangsta rap appears

N.W.A.'s Straight Outta ComptonUntil the very late 1980s, hip hop had been dominated by the East Coast (essentially New York City, though Philadelphia and New Jersey also had vital scenes), with West Coast hip hop a curiosity dominated by dance-heavy and critically reviled electro hop artists like Egyptian Lover and World Class Wreckin' Cru. The latter crew included Dr. Dre before he joined N.W.A.

Aside from electro hop, early pioneer hardcore hip hop artists, including most notably Ice-T, gained underground fame in the Los Angeles area during the early 1980s. Ice-T is often considered the earliest gangsta rapper, though paradoxically, he is most well known to mainstream America for the controversy regarding "Cop Killer", a song from his heavy metal band Body Count's self-titled debut album which bares virtually no resemblance to modern forms of gangsta rap. Aside from N.W.A. and Ice-T, early West Coast gangsta rappers include Too $hort (from Oakland, California) and others from Compton and Watts, Los Angeles, as well as Oakland, San Francisco and San Diego.

By the late 1980s, gangsta rap began to become a major force in hip hop. The first blockbuster hip hop album was the West Coast gangsta rap album Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A. in 1989 Straight Outta Compton also established West Coast hip hop as a vital genre, and a rival of hip hop's long-time capital, New York City. Straight Outta Compton sparked the first major controversy regarding hip hop lyrics when their song "Fuck Tha Police" earned a letter from the FBI strongly expressing law enforcement's resentment of the song.

I can see how it can get twisted....yes ICE-T was considered an O.G. Rapper......but wasn't as much as an impact as NWA in the LATE 80's....to be confused with the 90's. well ya....there it is.

MAD LUV 4 all yaw'll :mad:

Weezman!! :cool:

[Laver1969]

I slowed down a record once in 1976. I was just playing around with my little suitcase-type record player...so I think I may have actually invented screwed music it and didn't even know it.

[cj hood]

I slowed down a record once in 1976. I was just playing around with my little suitcase-type record player...so I think I may have actually invented screwed music it and didn't even know it.


just sayin'

[Micodin]

just sayin'


yo, dont steal my phrase. damn.




peoples always gotta be stirring the pot.

[Weezman]

you know...i went to Canada this weekend, had a great time.....spoke with a few locals. some kids were there....i asked if they were down with the Beasties....they simply replied, "nah, there old school". i took it as a compliment??

Aahh, what do want?

Peoples always gotta be stirin the pot. uuh, im mean "stiring". :p

[Sir SkratchaLot]

Okay, just to clarify. Dre Day was when gansta rap was born to pasty face suborbanites who previously listened to Def Leopord. To everyone who was into hiphop it was born in the early 80s.

[Sir SkratchaLot]

Also, I will slaughter all you Beastie biting fools on the cut.

[Micodin]

Also, I will slaughter all you Beastie biting fools on the cut.


oh yeah? but can you make blueberry waffels? cause i can. faced!

[Pootytang]

Okay, just to clarify. Dre Day was when gansta rap was born to pasty face suborbanites who previously listened to Def Leopord. To everyone who was into hiphop it was born in the early 80s.
Never said it was born w/ Dre, I said it hit. Another words, he is the man that brought it to the mainstream.

[Sir SkratchaLot]

oh yeah? but can you make blueberry waffels? cause i can. faced!

I can rock doubles of blueberry waffels.

I got berries and flower and sugar elixers
Between my turntables keep the batter and the mixer

[Sir SkratchaLot]

Never said it was born w/ Dre, I said it hit. Another words, he is the man that brought it to the mainstream.

Oh I know what you were saying but I just can't miss an oportunity to get a stab in at the pasty faced suburbanites. I remember 93, all the kids in my school suddenly thought they were hoard cause they bought a rap album, singing bout 6 in the mornin' but not knowing Ice T, and thinking Snoop wrote La-Di-Da-Di. But they were all just Mr. Dobolinas.

[Weezman]

I can rock doubles of blueberry waffels.

I got berries and flower and sugar elixers
Between my turntables keep the batter and the mixer


is your DJ name I-HOP? :rolleyes:

[Pootytang]

is your DJ name I-HOP? :rolleyes:
And do you spin at the Waffle House?

[Weezman]

And do you spin at the Waffle House?


let goooo, my eeegggOOoo!! :D

[Sir SkratchaLot]

is your DJ name I-HOP? :rolleyes:

It is now!

[Sir SkratchaLot]

Its bigger than I-HOP, I-HOP, I-HOP, I, UUUGGGGHHHHH!