words by jace.
this is a single-entry archive page. click above for the now thing.
I've always thought of screw music as a fine example of American Negro Lazy Genius: take a song, slow it down, then sell it. In the hands of DJ Screw this became contagiously brilliant, this strange syrupy thing that probably wouldn't have been possible in a country where whites didn't steal Africans and force them to work for several generations. Grime is work-ethic music, strivers' shouts. Screw is watermelon-patch process, droopy and militant at zero reparations. Why should we sweat if we didn't ask to be here?
Most cultures, even DJ cultures, place a high value on originality. Bugs, flowers, and animosities just reproduce.
Sweden's main cultural export is IKEA, which means a million people furnishing their rooms in the exact same way by personally putting in millions of little screws and widgets and erecting tables chairs desks beds and so on.
Radioclit
is a guy from the Swedish rap act Stacs of Stamina and some other guy
I don't know. We met in France, they videotaped Ove-Naxx exposing
himself and gave me a mixtape I lost. They also just 'screwed n chopped' the new
Roll Deep album, downloads here. (EDIT: 'Screwing' slows it down, 'chopping' adds cuts, edits, and backspins, etc)
So a bunch of people will end up hearing the Roll Deep album in its freely-distributed, slowed-down, Radioclit-branded form before they wrap their ears around the intact original properly-pitched thing. I love the way that interrupts the usual 'do you like it?' question asked of an album, screw music is never about regular value judgments; when you get yr lean on, its just a question of how far you can tip without losing it (R.I.P. DJ Screw). Take Remember the Days-- the screwed version bends the original's FM lite-meets-rave piano melodies into something eerily minor, tones slipping off the piano's deep end, sunk in the spaces between keys. The screw slows Remember's sober inspirational down into a darkly psychedelic dirge. Viscous time. It's possible to critique an MC who's speaking directly to your lizard brain, but then you have to ignore all the unnameable information your lizard brain slithers back to you.
Reverse IKEA, you pick something large, something culturally large, and loosen all the screws or put a wrench in the works and send back -- unbuyable or hacked or narcotized or maybe just re-branded repackaged for resale -- into the world. Music just one window to toss a rock through.
reacher () - юни 12 2005
man you don't have to work very hard to break a sweat in Houston TX!!! (during the summer anyway)- - - - - - - -
jc (URL) - юни 13 2005
reacher- 'screw' is generally just slowing down a record, 'chopping' is when edits and cuts go into it. (Radioclits was "chopped and screwed" like most) but yeah, either way i consider it a 'boldly innovative remix technique' thats sophisticated and not easy to do well.- - - - - - - -
carles () - юни 13 2005
They used to play these sets on KBXX in Houston (like 96-97) that'd be pretty much entirely east coast stuff, but I remember that like, a ways into it, when no one expected it, they'd start to chop the beat and slowly fade a screwed track in, and there was this shift from a tinny shuffle to this thick pulse that just bullied whatever you were paying attention to out of the way and weighed your car down enough to bring it to a school zone pace. If you were on the loop, you'd see at least one middle finger, white on plaid.- - - - - - - -
left () - юни 14 2005
these are by far the best message board comments i've read inna while and now i'm going to ruin it by coming out and saying it instead of alluding...- - - - - - - -
Dub1 () - юни 15 2005
check "talk to me" by David Banner and Lil Flip c+S by dj Michael 5000 Watts. . as far as i can tell this track goes nice with whatever syrup you pick.trust me. peace/- - - - - - - -
looj () - юли 8 2005
I actually did what you described, and listened to the SnC version of Roll Deep before I bought the regular album a few weeks ago. Hearing it screwed and chopped gave a whole new appreciation for the harmonies and the music behind the grimey sound; and because some of the chorus samples are sped up, they sound just slightly off normal, like lots of other screwed music.- - - - - - - -
daniel () - декември 20 2005
i love screwed music- - - - - - - -
DM () - декември 20 2005
i really like screwed 'n chopped music myself cus its just a new way of jamin to yo music u know, it would be cool if everybody would feel the same way about this. if ya'll have any links to any screwed music u know about or have done yourselves then drop me an e-mail.- - - - - - - -
DJ Lil Buddy () - януари 20 2006
Chopped and screwed music is a way of life. I'm from Little Rock, AR, but I've lived in Louisana and thanks to DJ Screw the music is everywhere, not just in Texas. If you now how to relax and chill, or really like to hear a song. Screw is for you. I chop and screw everything I hear whether it's old school, R&B or rap, whatever. If anybody is looking for that screw just holla at ya boy DJ Lil Buddy.- - - - - - - -
dont hate () - април 27 2006
main! i got a chester full of screw tapes- - - - - - - -
Darrell - октомври 9 2006
screwed up clicc mayne rip dj scew hawk mayne imma put it dane 4 yall niggaz mayne- - - - - - - -