DJ Screw - Biography

Biography

DJ Screw was born in Bastrop, Texas, not far from Smithville, Texas. His father, Robert Earl Davis Sr., was a long-haul truck driver based in Houston. His mother Ida May Davis (who had a young daughter from a previous marriage), came to the area to be with her mother when her son was born in 1971. She returned to Houston, but the marriage was floundering; soon it would be over, and she and her kids moved to Los Angeles for a couple of years, then back to Houston, and returned to Smithville in 1980 at the age of nine.

A young DJ Screw had aspirations of being a truck driver like his father, but seeing the 1984 hit break dancing movie Breakin' and discovering his mother's turntable permanently derailed those dreams. His admiration of classical music drove him to continue the piano lessons that he had long forsaken. After seven years of hard studies he was able to play works of art like Etude in C major by Chopin flawlessly, by ear. But the call of the turntable was more powerful than the ringing of the keys and so, he fell out of sophistication and back into the life of DJing. He would take her B.B. King and Johnnie Taylor records and scratch them on the turntable the way DJs did, slowing the spinning disc and then allowing it to speed back up, playing with sound. Robert Earl began buying records of his own and would spin with his friend Trey Adkins, who would rhyme. "Screw had a jam box," Adkins told Texas Monthly, "and he hooked up two turntables to it and made a fader out of the radio tuner so he could deejay." Adkins said if Robert Earl didn't like a record, he would deface it with a screw. One day Adkins asked him, "Who do you think you are, DJ Screw?" Robert Earl liked the sound of that and, in turn, gave his long-time friend a new name: Shorty Mac.

He began DJing at age 12 in 1983, and started his trademark slowed-down mixes in 1990. The mixes began as special compilations requested by friends and those in the know. He soon made them available for sale when his close friend Toe offered to buy a mix from him for ten dollars. At that point, customers had increasingly begun requesting his more well-known mixes instead of personalized lists. During the early 1990s, he invited some of the Houston emcees from the city's south side to rhyme on those mixes. This coalition of emcees eventually became the formation of the Screwed-up Click.

He moved to a house near Gulfgate Mall. Fans, some driving from far away areas such as Dallas and Waco, lined up at his door to obtain his recordings. He started his own business and opened a shop up on 7717 Cullen Blvd in Houston, TX, called Screwed-up Records and Tapes. It has been shown in numerous music videos and documentaries as well as independent films. There are now several Screwed-up Records and Tapes spread out through Texas, including one in Beaumont and in Austin.

Texas Governor Rick Perry honored him by making him an official Texas Music Pioneer.