DJ Screw: from cough syrup to full-blown fever

When he died, 10 years ago next week, DJ Screw's druggy, ultra-slow sound was a regional craze. Two decades on and his influence can be felt from chart hip-hop to Swedish electronica.Sometime around 1990, a young hip-hop DJ named Robert Earl Davis, Jr decided music was just too fast for his liking. Using the pitch controls on his turntables, he began slowing records to preternaturally slow speeds, augmenting his mixes with smooth cuts and slurred commentary that sounded as if delivered from beyo...

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