Chopped And Screwed

Chopped and screwed — also known as "screwed and chopped" or "slowed and throwed" — is a remix technique and music genre invented in Houston, Texas, by Robert Earl Davis Jr., known as DJ Screw. From 1990 onward, Davis began radically slowing down his turntable speeds, reducing tempo to 60–70 BPM, to create a heavy, hypnotic, and enveloping sound. He distributed his screwed mixtapes throughout Houston and the Southern United States, building a massive underground culture before his untimely death in November 2000. His legacy was rediscovered by an international audience around 2005 and continues to exert considerable influence on contemporary hip-hop.

Technically, chopped and screwed involves lowering a track's pitch to produce a deep, smooth, and drawling vocal tone, then applying various DJ techniques: beat skips, scratches, stop-times, loops of key phrases, and repetitions of individual syllables that create a stylised stuttering effect. This manipulation transforms any music — rap, R&B, gospel — into a solemn and almost dreamlike procession. Compared to alternative hip-hop, which experiments with production, chopped and screwed operates in post-production, reconstructing existing works according to a logic of temporal rewriting. It shares with battle rap a deep attachment to Houston's oral culture, while occupying a radically different sonic space.

The chopped and screwed scene remains strongly rooted in Texan culture, but its representatives now tour international hip-hop festivals. Viper, a prolific Houston artist, embodies this heritage with a DIY approach and absolute fidelity to the screwed aesthetic. Devin The Dude, a veteran of the Houston rap scene, is one of the artists whose catalogue, screwed by DJ Screw, is considered essential listening. Salem, who integrated screwed elements into a witch house aesthetic, is the most striking example of how chopped and screwed has spread far beyond its original boundaries.

FestT lists 4 festivals where chopped and screwed features, most often within hip-hop programmes that honour regional American cultures. To explore other facets of Houston and Southern US hip-hop, alternative hip-hop festivals sometimes provide space for these experimental and geographically rooted forms.