Chopped & screwed

Screwed & Chopped 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.

Related Topics:
Remix - Hip-hop music - Tempo - DJ - Scratching

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"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.

Related Topics:
Houston - Texas - 2000 - DJ Screw - Memphis rap

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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."

Related Topics:
Swishahouse - Mike Jones - Paul Wall - Slim Thug - Chamillionaire - Marijuana - Syrup

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Presently, Paul Wall is often credited as being the producer who brought the technique into the mainstream. He was even invited onto the digital cable channel MTV Jams during the summer of 2005 to host a block of Screwed & Chopped music videos and to talk about the remix technique that he uses.

Related Topics:
Digital cable - MTV Jams - 2005

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During the spring and summer of 2005, several popular urban music videos were released in a Screwed & Chopped remix form in addition to their original. These include:

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• "Still Tippin'" by Mike Jones
• "You Gonna Luv Me" by Da Back Wudz
• "Na-Na-Na-Na" by Nelly
• "Wait (The Whisper Song)" by Ying Yang Twins
• "Dem Boyz" by Boyz N Da Hood
• "What U Gon' Do" by Lil' Jon
• "Some Cut" by Trillville
• "You Don't Know Me" by T.I.
• "Smile" by Scarface
• "Game Over" by Lil' Flip
 
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