''Chopped and screwed'' refers to a technique of remixing hip hop music which developed in the Houston, Texas hip hop scene in the 1990s. This is accomplished by slowing the tempo and applying techniques such as skipping beats, record scratching, stop-time and effecting portions of the music to make a "chopped-up" version of the original.
The origin of the technique is usually attributed to DJ Screw, a Houston hip hop DJ who allegedly was inspired to this slow-paced technique by the local fad of consumption of "purple drank" (a term for the mixture of cough syrup containing codeine and promethazine with soft drinks and candy; the "purple haze" color which permeated the cough syrup has influenced the now-standard marking of "chopped and screwed albums" with a purplish exterior). Despite the controversy surrounding DJ Screw's 2001 death at the age of 29, the chopped and screwed technique of remixing hip hop music survived him and was particularly popularized through Internet-based peer-to-peer file sharing networks such as Napster and Gnutella.
Today, numerous DJs, both professional and amateur, specialize in the creation of "chopped & screwed" versions of prior-released singles and albums; besides DJ Screw's Screwed Up Records, DJ Michael "5000" Watts' Swishahouse Records is also a major recording establishment which specializes in the production of "chopped & screwed" albums and mixtapes. Technique was actualized in 2010s, as a part of witch house/chillwave/newbreed revolutions. .
