What does chopped and screwed mean?
Chopped and screwed (also called screwed and chopped, or just screw music) is a hip-hop remix style that slows a track's tempo and pitch down together, then edits its sections into a looser, looped arrangement. The result is a heavier, more hypnotic version of the original song, built for riding around at low volume rather than the dance floor. It was pioneered in Houston, Texas, by DJ Screw in the early 1990s.
Who invented chopped and screwed?
Chopped and screwed was invented by DJ Screw, born Robert Earl Davis Jr., a Houston DJ who started slowing records down on two turntables in the late 1980s and turned it into a full technique through the early-to-mid 1990s. Working from his home studio and later his own record shop, he recorded more than 300 original mixtapes, at times selling 10,000 to 15,000 cassettes a day. The artists who freestyled over his tapes — Fat Pat, Big Moe, Big Hawk, Lil' Keke, Big Pokey, and others — became known as the Screwed Up Click.
DJ Screw's papers, tapes, and equipment are preserved in the University of Houston's Special Collections, which credits him with developing chopped and screwed into its own genre. As UH archivist Julie Grob put it, "The DJ Screw papers get requested more than any other collection in the archives." He died in 2000 at age 29, but the sound he created went on to shape Southern hip-hop for decades.
What does "screwed" mean?
"Screwed" refers to slowing a track's tempo and pitch down together, rather than isolating one or the other the way a modern time-stretch tool can. DJ Screw did this by hand, dragging a record on two turntables and alternating between them to keep the sound continuous as it slowed. The effect drops the vocals into a deep, syrupy drawl and thickens the bass — it's the foundation every chopped and screwed track is built on.
What does "chopped" mean?
"Chopped" is the editing side of the technique: taking a phrase, verse, or hook and cutting it into smaller pieces, then repeating, skipping, or rearranging them. A chop might stutter a single word, double a line back on itself, or drop a beat out before it lands again. Done well, it changes the rhythm and feel of a section without changing what's actually being said.
What does chopped and screwed sound like?
A chopped and screwed track sounds heavier and slower than the original: thicker bass, a dragging, almost underwater vocal, and a looser, looped structure instead of a tight radio edit. It's built for driving slow more than for a dance floor — less urgent, more hypnotic. Scratches, record stops, and DJ tags are common touches layered on top.
What BPM is chopped and screwed?
Classic chopped and screwed tracks typically land around 60–70 BPM. That number depends on the original track's tempo, since screwing works by dragging a track's speed down by a percentage rather than targeting a fixed BPM — most screwed mixes end up around 60–75% of the original tempo. A typical ~90 BPM hip-hop track, for example, lands close to that 60–70 BPM range once it's screwed.
Chopped and screwed vs. slowed music
"Slowed" or "slowed + reverb" tracks, the kind that took off on YouTube and TikTok in the late 2010s, borrow the tempo drop from chopped and screwed but usually stop there: a digital pitch and tempo edit with reverb added on top, made in a general-purpose audio editor rather than chopped by hand. Chopped and screwed is the older, Houston-rooted technique, and the chop — rearranging and repeating sections, not just slowing them down — is what a lot of slowed edits skip. They're related, but not the same thing.
How do you make chopped and screwed music?
At a high level: pick a track, slow its tempo and pitch down together, chop sections into a looser arrangement, preview the result, and record your take. DJ Screw did all of that by hand on turntables. Today you can do it in a full DAW, or in a browser tool built for exactly this.
TutorialWant to make one yourself?
Read: How to Screw and Chop Your Music — a full step-by-step guide from upload to export.
Try it yourself, free, right in your browser — no account needed.
Try Screwlab