The screwed and chopped sound, created and developed in the Houston underground rap scene by DJ Screw and DJ Michael “5000” Watts is perhaps one of the most surreal and sonically experimental developments in the past ten or fifteen years – and it involves the simple concept of DJ’s slowing records down to a syrupy, pasty pace while the music and lyrics seem to lazily drone and ooze in and out of your speakers. The end result is a drowsy, mellow, psychedelic sort of haze (originally inspired by the consumption of prescription cough medicines such as Promethazine which contains codeine). As an added effect, a DJ will often cut between two copies of the same album to create a rhythmic kick in the chest, similarly found in Jamaican dancehall and dub. And although the sound is primarily synonymous with not just its hometown of Houston but with the South, it’s becoming extraordinarily popular – perhaps because it creates a new sonic landscape in which the process of listening to music becomes unpredictable and exciting. (In fact, the screwed and chopped movement has gotten so big that bands such as the Transplants amongst others have a chopped and screwed version of their latest release.)
Indeed, for the uninitiated, the screwed and chopped sound will be a bit difficult to get into; after all, it’s at first a highly acquired taste that you’d have to get used to. But what you will discover upon repeated listens is something new each and every time you listen: the texture will seem simultaneously to ebb, flow, oscillate, and undulate. It’s an ethereal, mind-altering experience.
The North Mississippi All Stars’ latest release, Electric Blue Watermelon: Screwed and Chopped EP takes songs from their full-length LP of the same name, and adds the chopped and screwed sound to six of their songs. Sonically, this experiment is the closest thing to the psychedelic sounds that came out of the late 1960’s. The best comparison in my mind would be an album such as Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced? because it sounded like nothing else that came out in its time, and most importantly the psychedelic mood to that album is similar to the mood created on Electric Blue Watermelon: Screwed and Chopped.
The undulating, droning and simultaneously bluesy wah-wah pedal and feedback along with some turntable scratching that begins the EP signals the start of a revolutionary sonic experience. The unpredictability of the screwed and chopped sound begins when the DJ is allowed to cut and scratch at will. In the first song, “Stompin’ My Foot,” DJ Jimmy D, lets the first few lines of the song start before repeating at various points – sometimes it’s the beginning of the phrase, sometimes it’s the end of the phrase, creating a wildly new rhythmic timing (and it seems to make an intuitive sense with the Dickinson brothers and Chew’s tight musicianship). Even with the psychedelics of the screwed and chopped sound, “Stompin’ My Foot,” is a sweaty, bluesy, fun-loving romp that sounds representative of the members’ old-time Mississippi and Memphis area blues. “No Mo,” the second track starts off with a tripped out rap beat, with some rap lyrics by Al Kapone, before starting off with a slowed down, almost dirge-like blues; the scratching by DJ Jimmy D adds a dream-like quality to the song. Songs such as “Mississippi Bollweevil” and “Goat” are perhaps the most aggressive, sweaty and energetic blues songs on the album. DJ Jimmy D on these two tracks is at his best, scratching not just the vocals of Luther Dickinson and Chris Chew but also scratching Dickinson’s guitar work, creating this dreamy, surreal wall of sound.
The combination of the North Mississippi All-Stars sound with Houston’s chopped and screwed sound is a unique and innovative experiment – an experiment so unique that it seems to defy description but it is an amazing sonic experiment that allows for a complex, bizarre layering of sound. It is also the best and most thrilling example of the screwed and chopped sound to date.
