Street
screw tape
What does screw tape mean?
A cassette mixtape made by DJ Screw in his Houston home — slowed-down rap edits, often with freestyles from the Screwed Up Click laid over them. Sold direct out of his house at first, then through Screwed Up Records. Foundational artefacts of Southern rap.
"Dude has every screw tape from '95 onwards on the shelf."
Origin
DJ Screw began making custom slowed-down cassette mixtapes — often called 'grey tapes' — out of his Houston house from the early 1990s, originally for friends and the SUC, then for paying customers lined up around the block.
Frequently asked questions
What is a screw tape?
A screw tape is one of DJ Screw's slowed-down cassette mixtapes made in Houston.
How do you use screw tape in a sentence?
"Somebody pulled out an old screw tape and the whole car started nodding along."
Where does the term screw tape come from?
It's named after DJ Screw, the Houston DJ who pioneered the slowed-and-throwed cassette mixtape style.
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