Weaving flashes of his own voice into an oral history featuring over 130 of Screw’s friends, family, heroes, students, and more, Walker stitches together a full picture of the iconic DJ’s legacy.
~Mankaprr Conteh, Rolling Stone
In this sensational oral history, hip-hop historian Walker (Houston Rap Tapes) offers a riveting look at why 'DJ Screw is the stuff of Texas legend'...Though [DJ Screw's] life was cut short, Walker’s meticulous account underscores the enduring legacy of the rapper’s pioneering music and his awe-inspiring ability to capture 'the sound of the streets.' This engrossing work will fascinate fans.
~Publishers Weekly
An ambitious love letter to one of Houston’s beloved mixtape kings...An insightful portrait sure to engage DJ Screw’s longtime fans and newcomers alike.
~Kirkus, Starred Review
[A] fascinating oral history chronicling the life of DJ Screw...Walker’s years of research and personal expertise about Houston’s music scene will help cement Screw’s legacy as an innovator who still inspires.
~Library Journal
The 'chopped and screwed' sound has become such a staple of hip-hop that most fans probably don’t even wonder where the slowed-down, stop-start sonic approach came from—and thus, the late DJ Screw, a.k.a. Houston native Robert Earl Davis Jr., is one of the truly unsung heroes of the genre...he's finally receiving his due in the form of DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution.
~Jem Aswad, Variety
The sort of history from below that Walker pursues [in DJ Screw], organised around dialogues with Screw's family and friends, and framed by some light touch narration, seems appropriate. This is the story, after all, of a folk hero who rarely left his hometown...and who resided outside the circuits of official culture...As a written form, oral history suits the circumstantial nature of Screw's artistic development too...It's a form that also serves here to dispel some enduring myths, especially the oft repeated function of Screw's sound to a function of intoxication.
~Paul Rekret, The Wire
To have created music so immersive, and sedated to the point of psychedelia, it was assumed [DJ Screw] had to have been out of his mind, operating in his infamous Wood Room home studio on a different time zone to the rest of us. I’ve honestly lost count of the internet posts I’ve read telling me Screw’s music doesn’t make sense unless you listen to it stoned. Yet what’s so great about veteran writer Lance Scott Walker’s long-awaited DJ Screw...is how it demystifies all this, treating its subject less like a mysterious campfire tale and more like a human being...[DJ Screw] is a breezy combination of biography and oral history.
~Thomas Hobbs, Okayplayer
DJ Screw single handedly created a hip-hop culture in Houston. Screw’s invention has inspired superstars like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and A$AP Rocky. And via interviews from family, friends, and Chopped and Screwed nerds, he finally gets his due.
~Darryl Robertson, Esquire, "Best Music Books of 2022 (So Far)"
[DJ Screw is one] of the best books of this year...[breaks] every rule of the hip hop biography to rewrite them in a way that suggests something new, and more ambitious for the future of rap scholarship.
~Abe Beame, Passion of the Weiss
[A] sprawling story of the man who put Houston rap on the map...In talking to most of the Houston rap world, Walker is able to paint a portrait of the artist that hasn't really been seen before.
~Chris O'Connell, MySA
This book is an absolute powerhouse...Lance Scott Walker delivers a poignant and personal tale that should solidify and codify Screw’s place in the hip-hop pantheon while also never shying away from who he was as a person in everyday life.
~Adam P. Newton, Bearded Gentlemen Music
