DJ SCREW
THE INVENTOR
DJ Screw didn't follow the mixtape era — he invented his own lane inside it. From Houston, Texas, he pioneered chopped and screwed: slowing records down, chopping the beats, and creating a sound so distinct it became a genre, a culture, and eventually a permanent part of hip-hop's DNA. What started in a Houston living room now echoes through mainstream music worldwide.
THE SCREW TAPES
The Screw Tapes — hundreds of them, hand-dubbed cassettes from the Diary of the Originator series — are among the most legendary physical artifacts in hip-hop history. Personal, one-of-one, freestyle-loaded tapes made for the neighborhood that became sacred texts for a global movement. The Screwed Up Click — the family of Houston artists around him — turned those tapes into the foundation of Southern hip-hop's rise.
DJ Screw passed in November 2000, at just 29. The sound he created outlived him, and Houston has never stopped saying his name.
THE PHYSICAL ERA
No artifacts in hip-hop embody the physical era more than Screw Tapes — music that existed as hand-dubbed cassettes, passed hand to hand, trunk to trunk. This archive preserves physical artifacts and documentation from the era DJ Screw defined — the tapes, the artwork, the history — from the last generation of hip-hop that lived on physical media.
THE LEGACY
DJ Screw's legacy is carried by his family, the Screwed Up Click, and Screwed Up Records & Tapes in Houston — the official home of his catalog. This archive exists to document the era's history alongside those who keep it alive.
We're not collecting memorabilia. We're preserving history.
PUBLIC CLIPS
These clips were posted on YouTube by the people who knew DJ Screw and the shows that recorded them. They are embedded here from those posts, for the record.
A rare DJ Screw interview on Houston’s ABC 13 (posted by Donnie Houston TV)
Bun B interviews DJ Screw at the original Screw Shop
DJ Screw and the Screwed Up Click explain their history
Welcome to Screwston: the story of DJ Screw and Houston hip-hop (2020 documentary)
Lil Randy (S.U.C.) on early DJ Screw stories and the slowed-down sound
Screwed Up Click freestyles: Hawk, Mike D, Lil O and C-Ward
Botany Boyz on meeting DJ Screw and the first freestyle on a tape
LEGAL DISCLAIMER
This is an independent historical archive documenting the mixtape era. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the estate of DJ Screw, the Screwed Up Click, or Screwed Up Records & Tapes, which remains the official home of DJ Screw's catalog. All names are used for historical identification purposes only.