Smithville: DJ Screw Gravesite

Roll down the windows anywhere in Houston and you’ll still hear it. The beat drags, the voices sink, and time seems to slow. The DJ Screw gravesite sits in Cunningham Cemetery, outside Smithville in Bastrop County. It’s a quiet country plot, far from the Houston streets he changed. But this is where Robert Earl Davis Jr. began.

Davis came into the world in Smithville in 1971. His mother had come home to be near her own mother. After a few years in Los Angeles and Houston, the family returned to Smithville when he was nine. As a boy, he scratched records so hard that friends started calling him Screw. Then he moved to Houston’s South Side in his teens.

Chopped and Screwed

He slowed hip-hop records way down and cut the vocals into stutters and echoes. He called the technique chopped and screwed. The effect sounds like a Gulf Coast afternoon when the heat bends the air. Everything moves, but nothing hurries.

Screw sold his mixtapes out of his house, and the line stretched down the block. Then he opened Screwed Up Records and Tapes. He recorded more than 350 tapes with his crew, the Screwed Up Click. Underground, his gray cassettes sold into the millions.

His cousin Donald Davis remembered hearing the new name for the first time. “DJ Screw, what kind of a name is that?” he asked. Still, the name stuck, and Houston made it famous.

Home to Smithville

Davis died in Houston in November 2000, from a codeine overdose. He was 29. His funeral filled Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Smithville. Older relatives sang gospel hymns in their Sunday best. Meanwhile, young Houston rappers lined the walls in gold chains and fresh sneakers.

Texas later named him an official Texas Music Pioneer. Today his sound echoes through rap, R&B, and pop worldwide. Houston also honors legends like Lightnin’ Hopkins, who shaped the city’s blues long before Screw. Read more about DJ Screw and the Screwed Up Click.

His family has worked to restore and improve his grave. Visit respectfully, and drive the country roads slowly. Screw would want it that way.