Searching for an anecdote to explain the essence of Screw, several friends recall a road trip to Port Arthur. When Langston and Chill arrived at his house to pick him up, Screw was nowhere near ready. He was famous for being late. "If you said be there at three, he might be there at eight, or maybe the next day," says Langston. "But he'd get there in his own good time, and it was still okay."
Screw, Chill and rapper Big Hawk finally piled into Langston's car. All of them were dead tired. Screw had been up for about two days straight, as usual, working on his music. "He was like a little ant, always working himself to death behind the turntables," Chill says. Somewhere along the way a stop was made, and the fellas bought a pie. Soon thereafter Screw keeled over dead asleep in the back seat -- so soundly that he didn't realize he was sleeping in a pie.
Deron Neblett
Longtime friend Orian "Lump" Lumpkin: "If it wasn't for Darryl Scott, there wouldn't be DJ Screw. If it wasn't for DJ Screw, there wouldn't be none of these guys gettin' money."
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When Screw awoke with pie all over himself, the fellas must have laughed for two hours straight. Screw laughed right along with them.
"You wouldn't even think he was in the rap game," says Screw's cousin Chris Cooley. "He carried himself like he worked at a gas station, like he just had a regular-ass job. He would see somebody big, a rapper or something, and get happy just like a fan. Whenever someone would tell him, 'Man, you're a star,' he would point up in the sky and say, 'Naw, man, the stars are up there.' "
People always want to see a falling star. After Screw was found dead in the restroom of his studio, plenty of folks were quick to assume the worst.
First to jump the gun were the police. Screw's body showed no sign of injury; it appeared that his heart had just stopped beating. But police suggested to the Houston Chronicle that Screw died of a cough medicine overdose. Screw had been associated with "sippin' syrup" -- the latest hip-hop drug trend of mixing cough syrup with soda -- through the titles of some of his mix tapes and the lyrics of some rappers in the Screwed Up Click. Apparently this is all that police based their comments on, since they made them before any toxicology tests were performed on the body. Results of those tests were still pending earlier this month, according to the Harris County medical examiner's office.
Screw's death was noted by media outlets from MTV to The New York Times, and each one mentioned syrup. Each story twisted the knife a little deeper into the hearts of those who loved Screw. "It hurt real bad," says his father. "He told me, 'Pops, I don't do drugs. I go to schools and tell kids, hugs, not drugs.' "
Whether Screw sipped syrup -- most of those close to him avoid the subject -- his family and friends are convinced that syrup is not what killed him. Chill, for one, cites the stress of working two and three days at a time. Langston cites Screw's diet. "Robert Davis was a man who loved the word 'fried chicken,' " he says with no shame. "I mean, he was in love with fried chicken. If nothing else was left on this earth, as long as there was fried chicken, it would be okay."
Screw, who had been skinny as a youth, also had gained a tremendous amount of weight over the past few years. "Here's a black male about 300 pounds, cholesterol over 200, who ate fried chicken every day. If you do this year after year after year, something will happen eventually."
According to a Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse report, syrup's common side effects include lethargy, fatigue, loss of coordination and constipation. The report does not mention heart failure.
On a recent Saturday in January at Screwed Up Records and Tapes, people are lined up 20 deep at the bulletproof glass window, asking for tapes. They mainly want the classics -- June 27th, The Final Chapter, Plots and Schemes.Behind the counter are Screw's cousins Chris Cooley and Shorty Mack. The cash register rings constantly.
The store has an inventory of about 130 different Screw tapes, with some unreleased material still to come. Cooley, Mack and several of Screw's other cousins have pledged to keep the store and Screw's music alive. They've launched a Web site, www.screweduprecords.com. They're recording tracks in Screw's studio. Another cousin is starting a nonprofit foundation to continue his legacy of helping people. But all the work in the world isn't nearly enough to keep them from remembering.
"I got to the studio after they took him away," says Shorty Mack. "I stayed there for a few days. It was hard to believe that he would never be back there. This is the longest time we've been apart in years. At the studio, I just knew it wasn't true that he was dead. Every day it would just sink in more and more, and it got harder and harder."
"Screw was always late," Chill says. "Even now, that's what I want to believe. He's just late, that's all."
Read Washington's companion article, "Turn the Beat Around." See also Craig D. Lindsay's tribute to DJ Screw.
