When a young Robert Earl Davis Jr. began scratching his mother’s B.B. King and Johnnie Taylor records in the early 1980s, teaching himself how to DJ, no one could have guessed he would grow up to be one of the most influential DJs hip-hop music would ever see. But he did. By the early 1990s, Davis had perfected his “chopped and screwed” style, and earned himself the nickname DJ Screw. He invited Houston rappers, Lil’ Keke among them, to collaborate on his underground mixtapes, and he launched his own record store before dying in 2000.
That legacy is captured in the exhibit “DJ Screw and the Rise of Hip Hop,” which documents the late Screw’s career through photographs, flyers, Screw’s handwritten rap lyrics, and sound recordings. After the exhibit’s closing, the exhibition materials will remain in the Houston History Archives as part of the Houston Hip Hop Collection.
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Through September 21. University of Houston – M.D. Anderson Library, 4800 Calhoun Road. For information, call 713-743-1050 or visit www.uh.edu. Free.
Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Starts: March 19. Continues through Sept. 15, 2012