On this day in the year 2000, Houston lost one of its most influential musical innovators. Robert Earl Davis Jr, better known as DJ Screw, was found dead inside his Houston recording studio at the age of twenty nine. The cause of death was determined to be a codeine overdose, a substance that would later become linked to a sound and a culture he helped define.
DJ Screw often mixed prescription strength cough syrup with soda to create the drink many called purple drank or lean. Though this mixture cut his life short far too early, his influence on music has only grown since. His impact did not just change the sound of Houston, it reshaped the entire landscape of Southern rap.
Known as the originator of the chopped and screwed movement, DJ Screw turned slow tempo beats, vinyl manipulation, and deep atmospheric bass into a cultural art form. His work became the heartbeat of Houston in the nineteen nineties, inspiring generations of artists and creating an entire subgenre that still lives today.
After his passing, his loyal fans, known as Screwheads, made sure his legacy would never fade. In the year 2005 they created Screwfest to celebrate his music and his influence. In the year 2007 VBS and Vice released the acclaimed documentary series titled Screwed in Houston, which dedicated an entire episode to his life, his studio sessions, and his blueprint for the Houston rap scene.
With more than three hundred mixtapes and five studio albums to his name, DJ Screw built a catalog that remains sacred to Houston culture. His sound inspired artists from UGK and Z Ro to Drake and Beyonce and continues to shape new generations of Southern talent.
Twenty five years later, DJ Screw is still present in every slowed beat, every remix, and every anthem that carries the spirit of the city he helped elevate. Gone far too soon but remembered forever, DJ Screw remains the sound of the South, eternal, slowed, and legendary.