"You heard it first in the streets, and it was heavy," writes Lance Scott Walker in DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution. "It was enchanting. It was mystical. It made Houston feel different from anywhere else on the planet. By the mid-1990s, you couldn't open a window in the big, hot city without hearing a car drive by playing slowed down hip-hop. You still can't."

In the swampy, sprawling streets of Houston, Texas, DJ Screw feels larger than life. His mixtapes of glacially paced hip-hop and R&B, heavily effected and recorded on the fly, feel like the perfect accompaniments to the city's thick, humid air, exhausting heat and vibrant car culture. Cuts from his mixes (which number well over 300) are frequently passed between friends, usually in the form of low-bitrate YouTube links or, if you're lucky, on cassettes or CDs from Screwed Up Records & Tapes, which exclusively sells his music. The DJ style he created, chopped and screwed, remains the city's most notable contribution to hip-hop, if not music in general.

Before Screw's passing at the turn of the millennium, chopped and screwed music was more localised, but his legacy has since stretched far outside both his home city and the hip-hop continuum. Screw's bag of tricks have found their way into the skill sets of countless DJs and producers. While rarely formally credited, his fingerprints can be heard on any R&B, pop or electronic track that features deep, pitch-shifted vocals or treats samples as malleable materials to be cut, stretched and reformed (FKA twigs' "ride the dragon" is one of many recent examples). To show just how pervasive Screw's influence has been, we compiled this list with help from Lance Scott Walker, who literally wrote the book on Houston rap and just released a biography of Screw earlier this year, and Houston-based artist Rabit, whose recent series of mixtapes draws deep connections between chopped and screwed music, DJ culture and the experimental electronic scene.

DJ Screw - June 27th (1996)

Any introduction to DJ Screw should begin with his most far-reaching and arguably most important mixtape, June 27th. Like much of the late artist's output, it mostly features slowed-down renditions of West Coast hip-hop re-recorded in his home studio, but its title track is a different animal altogether. "On the second side of that cassette is a song called 'June 27th' that clocks in at over 35 minutes and features more than a half dozen rappers freestyling and singing over a Kriss Kross beat produced by Jermaine Dupri that Screw just kept spinning while the folks in the room with him passed the mic," said Walker. Heavy, experimental and featuring a roster of rappers from his own Screwed Up Click (S.U.C. for short), the track is a blueprint for Screw's methodology. "He brought in sounds and put his imprint on them while at the same time making space for the people around him to express themselves through their freestyles," Walker continued. "That's inclusive, and generous."

In Houston, its cultural impact can't be overstated—June 27th is a recognised holiday.

DJ Screw - Tell Me Something Good (originally by UGK) (1995)

Screw had a way of highlighting the works of other local artists while reinterpreting their tracks, often shifting the mood or feel entirely. Because of this, it's not uncommon for listeners to have copies of originals and chopped and screwed versions of the same track.

Walker illustrated this effect in an anecdote about one of Screw's most celebrated albums. "In 1992, before the world had learned about DJ Screw or the Port Arthur duo of Pimp C and Bun B (known as UGK, or Underground Kingz), Houston's Bigtyme Recordz released a 12-inch record that DJ Screw would make into a local hit in the clubs where he was spinning," he wrote. "Years later, when Bigtyme CEO Russell Washington wanted Screw to do a remix album of songs by artists on the label for an album called All Screwed Up, the Southside DJ took UGK's original song, which samples the Rufus and Chaka Khan 1974 hit of the same name (written by Stevie Wonder), and overlaid the instrumental "Moments In Love" by UK group Art Of Noise, brilliantly weaving the two disparate pieces together into a new piece of music that furthered the musical education of anyone listening and took a bonafide Houston hit in a completely different direction. That was the power of Screw."

DJ Screw - Roller Skates (originally by Steel Pulse) (1996)

Screw's approach was centred around his ability to blend surprising influences into his trademark sound. "On the aforementioned 'June 27,' the song following the title track is Screw's take on Steel Pulses' 'Roller Skates' from their 1984 album Earth Crisis, putting his chopping skills on display to create new rhythms in the texture of the music and quite nearly new melodies in the way he chops up the vocal parts," said Walker. Screw was sampling and editing everything he could get his hands on, often juxtaposing hip-hop grooves with reggae, soul and more abstract selections. "I would have loved to have heard what other styles he might have pulled into his collection had he lived," Walker added. "I think he would have been open to so many new genres in the internet age of us all being more connected to music around the world."

DJ Screw - 25 Lighters (originally by DJ DMD, Fat Pat & Lil Keke) (2001)

"For everyone in Houston, '25 Lighters' is one of those tracks that sticks in your head," said Rabit. "It's a classic." While the original was a local hit thanks to its hook and Fat Pat's endlessly quotable final verse—nearly every bar has been resampled as a hook in another song—DJ Screw's rendition of "25 Lighters" is slowed down to an opiated crawl, showcasing some of his most aggressive and psychedelic methods. "I actually only learned about the drug dealing connotation behind it a couple years ago," Rabit continued. "You can clear out the bottom of a lighter and put drugs in them. So if you had 25 lighters in a pack, that was something you could hit the streets with and sell."

Mike Jones - Still Tippin' (feat. Slim Thug & Paul Wall) (2005)

After Screw's passing in 2000, a new wave of DJs, most notably Swishahouse founders OG Ron C and DJ Michael "5000" Watts, carried the legacy of chopped and screwed music further than ever before. '00s Houston rap was cleaner, its chops, scratches and screwed hooks coated in a modern sheen that caught the ears of new fans far outside of its home state. "This led to the 2005 mainstream uprising of Houston artists," said Walker. "The rise of artists like Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Chamillionaire and Mike Jones in 2005 helped inspire a future generation like Drake and A$AP Rocky, who have educated an entirely new audience on the importance of the work of DJ Screw."

This era birthed a laundry list of some of the genre's biggest names and hits, but, as Walker put it, "It's hard to list anything other than 'Still Tippin' in considering the most important work of the Swishahouse movement."

Swishahouse - Freestyle Before The Kappa (2001)

"There's a myth about it," said Rabit. "It's almost like an inside joke. You and your friends know what it's about, but someone from outside the South has no idea what it is." Another piece of Houston folklore: the kappa is an annual beach party held in Galveston, roughly an hour outside of Houston. It's still going, but the kappa's popularity was at an all-time high during the mid-'00s and coincided with Swishahouse's meteoric popularity. Every year, entire mixtapes were recorded specifically to be listened to on the drive to, during and after the event, and it wasn't uncommon to see lines of slabs (candy-painted custom cars, short for "Slow, Loud And Bangin'") driving down I-45 with that year's tape in the deck.

"I think something that's really missed in the Internet age is the off-the-cuff realism of it," Rabit continued. "Like, 'We're going here, and we're gonna name a mixtape after it.' No one does that now because everyone's worried if it comes off as cool. That's the weird part about [these tapes] living forever. It was really cool. But it also wasn't."

SALEM - Trapdoor (2010)

"Some people are calling it drag," said SALEM member Jack Donoghue, somewhat reluctantly, in a video interview from around 2010. When SALEM started releasing music at the end of the '00s, there was a noticeable scramble to understand and classify exactly what their mix of overdriven rave synths, screwed trap beats and dark religious Americana aesthetics was. While the term eventually fell out of fashion compared to the now-preferred "witch house," "drag" tied SALEM's output more directly to its influences. Early edits that originally surfaced in overlooked corners of the Internet, like their remix of "Till The World Ends" by Britney Spears or their now legendary rework of Alice Deejay's "Better Off Alone," could have been made by Screw—if he had grown up on a diet of '00s pop and rave music.

"SALEM would probably feel more comfortable being labeled as rap or electronic, rather than the derivative terms that people have invented, but sub-genres can help people identify things," said Rabit. "Their 2020 track 'Red River' sounds, to me, like a mix of DJ Screw and Future. This song, as well as 'Trapdoor,' wouldn't exist without DJ Screw."

It should be mentioned that directly connecting witch house, and the wave of American experimental music that came in its wake, to southern rap has had its fair share of detractors. But these sounds have a deep connection to Houston. "Robert Disaro, who coined the phrase witch house, was from Houston," said Rabit. "He was the first person to put out SALEM. He was the first person to put out Yves Tumor when he was doing music as TEAMS, and he released a record from Diamond Black Hearted Boy, Chino Amobi's earlier alias. Learning about him, I realized there was this connection between this electronic music and Houston, but it was so obscure that people missed it."

Chuck Person - Eccojams Vol. 1 (2010)

It's easy to forget that Daniel Lopatin—the artist now known for his soundtracks, executive producer credits on major pop albums and his work as Oneohtrix Point Never—once put out what was essentially a chopped and screwed tape. But the re-pitched, hypnotic loops on Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 make it easily one of Lopatin's most influential records, solidifying his place as a key forebearer of vaporwave. "I can definitely see some parallel aesthetics [between Screw and vaporwave] in the way that the genre takes pre-existing elements and twists them around, embracing the imperfections of the raw material (be it vinyl or VHS)," said Walker. "If vaporwave descends from the genre of witch house—which is decidedly inspired by DJ Screw—then you can track the influence in a straight line." (Eccojams is best listened to in full, but if you're looking for a personal recommendation, jump to 6:45.)

Rabit - TRACK 2 LANA IM SO HIGH (2019)

When Rabit started releasing his series of chopped and screwed tapes in 2018, it felt like a departure. His output up until then had moved between experimental grime, gothic ambient and gut-wrenching industrial club. But the idea had been in the back of his head for a while. "Actually, the first DJ edit I ever made was of 'Knockin' Pictures off the Wall,'" he said. "It was mixed with a kind of spooky Nguzunguzu track. It comes full circle with the mixtapes. It's the exact same premise, just now my ear is better. And I know the history more."

The tapes embraced Screw's raw, overdriven aesthetic and applied it to blends of both classic Houston rap and modern trap, layered with euphoric rave synths he'd pulled from a renewed interest in witch house. "I was on tour and thinking of witch house, especially the Russian channels," he said. "I was wondering how it came about, thinking about the connection. SALEM had pulled these influences together in their songs, but no one had been mixing actual rap music with witch house."

Rabit - 10 (2018)

Rabit's first tape, CRY ALONE DIE ALONE, hit a very particular nerve. Even for Rabit, it's particularly heavy and overwhelming when listened to in full. "I was flying home, having this sad nostalgia about living in America," he said. "Living in America is sad. It's broken." This sentiment hits home in the final track, "10," which flips samples of Rihanna's "Needed Me" and Bicep's "Glue" into a powerful lament.

For Rabit, creating these moments in tribute to DJ Screw seems to have had a lasting effect. As he readies What Dreams May Come, his first official album in four years, he said it will be the first project that folds his Screw-indebted work into original tracks, embracing the realism of his surroundings and tying him to his chosen home more than ever before.

Chopped and screwed music is tied to a very specific culture. As people continue to post slowed remixes of anything and everything to YouTube—not to mention the recent popularity of "slowed and reverb" edits across social media—the history behind the sound is at risk of being watered down and forgotten. For Rabit, anyone reinterpreting this sound outside of the Houston rap community needs to respect the history. "It's definitely a sensitive subject," he said. "On one of the covers, there's a torn off DJ Screw sticker. I was towing a line between wanting it to be a tribute but not wanting to remake it. At the end of the day, you have to bite the bullet, do what you think is good, and pay respect to the boundaries that aren't yours. You can't be worried about stepping on toes, but you have to give credit."