Screwed in Houston - Music World - VICE

[INTRO]
[DJ SCREW TRACK]
TRACE: Houston seemed the perfect destination for us to
cover both a rock and roll and a drug story.
[RAP]
TRACE: Today, the influence of Houston is huge across the
whole rap community.
[RAP]
TRACE: This started basically because of a
guy named DJ Screw.
He invented chopped and screwed music, which was
essentially slowing down existing records to a snail's
pace, like a syrupy drawl.
[DJ SCREW TRACK]
TRACE: One of the defining characteristics of chopped and
screwed music is drinking codeine-based cough syrup.

So we went down.
We drank some cough syrup, and we listened to some chopped
and screwed.
[RAP]
TRACE: Now I'm from Houston.
I don't know a lot about chopped and screwed.
I had to have somebody who could lead me around.
Luckily, I met up with this guy named Kyu Boi, who had
been a wrapper in the scene, and part of
the South Park Coalition.
The South Park Coalition has been around
since the late '80s.
They're one of the older crews in Houston.
Kyu Boi was this real dynamic guy, real funny guy, and
through him I was able to meet most all the people.
[RAP]
TRACE: Kyu Boi realized I didn't know
anything about rap music.
He told me the first thing I had to do was go through the
two most important neighborhoods in this story--
South Park and the Third Ward.

KYU BOI: now, you in the slums of Third Ward.
This is where we at, Houston, Texas, Third Ward Area.
TRACE: This doesn't look so good.
[RAP]
KYU BOI: We're on Live Oak Street, right in the heart of
Third Ward.
That's H-Town, Texas, Third Ward.
This really is a grimy location.
As you can see, there's really not too architecture-type
structures around here.
A lot of dope fiends, a lot of junkies.
As you can see, my boy right here, him, on that bike,
that's the product of Third Ward.
Looking at him will let you know where your life will be
if you don't get your shit right-- riding a fucking
bicycle, looking like Bob Marley fucking grandpa.
See those people over there looking angry?
Those are the people that you got to meet.
TRACE: The first guy we went to meet in the Third Ward is
Dope E. And he's a particularly important part of
the South Park Coalition.
DOPE E: D-O-P-E, capital E. Stands for dope effects,
because of the dope-ass music I do and the
effects I put to it.
That's what we about, beats and rhymes.
(FREESTYLING) on the music trying to make it last.
Just chilling in a [INAUDIBLE].
[SINGING]
TRACE: Dope E has a great recording studio in this
house, where members from the South Park Coalition can come
over there and record tracks.
EVERYONE JAMMING: It's all about the dough.
Standing making cash flow.
Building up in escrow.
TRACE: There's also a lot of really strange rules that he
has pinned up on the front door.
DOPE E: I run a studio, closed session, appointments only.
We going check out the music.
No visitors, though.
You got to get in touch with me before you come to my pad.
Do not bring dead animals inside of my
house and eat them--
cows, pigs, chicken, turkeys, et cetera.
No disagreeables beyond this point.
The most important thing is that you decide what side you
want to be on, agreeable or disagreeable.
Because Humpty Dumpty, he fell the fuck off the wall, sitting
his ass up there.
Cracked his whole shell.
Pick a side.
[SPC TRACK]
KYU BOI: I got us two invitations to a thug barbecue
in the hood, in South Park.
And all you got to do is just act black.
Act black and be yourself.
[RAP]
TRACE: It's not a cookout.
These are not veggie patties.
These are not tofu pups.
We're not warming shit.
We're barbecuing it with smoke, real fire.
This is the way people roll in Texas.
J CHILL: It's just that that South Side Texas flavor.
[EXCLAMATORY SOUND], you know?
TRACE: The barbecue is going on, great gangbusters.
You see all these guys drinking, getting up on weed.
They're barbecuing all this meat.
And they have pythons and what have you.
Pretty soon, the music starts playing.
And before long everyone is freestyling.
D ONE: (FREESTYLING) Hold on.
I gotta put this on camera.
I got on jewels, but my name ain't Santana.
I ain't from [INAUDIBLE], but I will [INAUDIBLE]
TRACE: A lot of people know about the music scene in
Houston primarily because of Paul Wall and Mike Jones.
But it's in places like this backyard where it began.
DOPE E: (FREESTYLING) [INAUDIBLE]
Coalition.
While we make amends like better men.
We get better.
And now we chilling [INAUDIBLE].
Ten years looking for shit.
Now we back.
[INAUDIBLE]
doing something black.
K-RINO: I can remember when it wasn't a scene.
People laughed at us.
People thought we was country.
People said all we did down here was ride
horses and rope cows.
Somebody got to be the person to get the ball rolling.
In my eyes, it was Face and the Geto Boys that did that.
WILLIE D: The Geto Boys was actually formed in '87.
But not until '89 did we start gaining some regional and
national notoriety.
It just kicked the door in and ushered in a in whole new crop
of rappers in Houston.
It really gave people hope.
K-RINO: When Face dropped the song, "Scarface," that's what
gave everybody motivation.
I can do this, too.

TRACE: In between Paul Walls and the Geto Boys, is the rise
of this guy, DJ Screw.
DISTA: All this slow music and chopped and screwed, purple
stuff, drank, lean that cup, from us.
We got the whole world onto it.
Ain't no way y'all can acknowledge the world and not
acknowledge Houston.
[RAP]
TRACE: What's happening, my baby?
I heard you're rolling down the road.
I had to get up in there.
How you doing?
BALDHEAD: Alright, man.
TRACE: I love your rod, man.
I need to work on my style a little bit, or you think maybe
I can make this happen?
BALDHEAD: Loosen your tie.
Relax a little bit.
TRACE: I'm thinking about maybe getting Thug Lite,
L-I-T-E.
BALDHEAD: [LAUGHING]
You'll get hit up.
TRACE: Or maybe Thug White.
BALDHEAD: You crazy.
[LAUGHTER]
[KLONDIKE KAT TRACK]
DISTA: We been doing our thing.
We been rocking big chains.
We been riding slabs, big rims, all that.
We've been doing that.
Half of the styles that's out right now, come from Houston.
There's a lot of people emulating our style and using
our words, and they running with it.
[KLONDIKE KAT TRACK]
TRACE: Can ya'll show me some of your jewelry, and stuff, so
we can check it out.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
MAN: If you're from the South Side, you
got you one of these.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]

MAN: When you get that million dollar check, that's where we
going stuff it.
Stuff it all in that money bag.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
[RAP]
TRACE: One of our first stops is to go meet the king of
bling, Johnny Dang, a.k.a TV Johnny.
[RAP]
TRACE: Going to meet Johnny Dang today, grill
master to the stars.
JOHNNY DANG: This is Johnny Dang, a.k.a TV Johnny.
They call me TV Johnny [INAUDIBLE]
TV jewelry.
TRACE: These are all diamonds, Johnny?
JOHNNY DANG: Yeah, that's all diamonds.
TRACE: Johnny Dang has been making custom jewelry for rap
stars for a long time now.
But what he's most famous for is his grills.
Which one is the most popular, you think?
JOHNNY DANG: Actually, this one and this one the most
popular one.
TRACE: I've seen a lot of guys wearing those.
So I'm afraid to ask you this.
How much is the number three?
How much does that cost?
JOHNNY DANG: $7,000.
TRACE: Oh, OK. $7,000.
Do you have a layaway plan?
JOHNNY DANG: Oh, definitely.
One year layaway.
TRACE: One year layaway?
JOHNNY DANG: I mean, whenever you can pay all, just pay all.
Take it out.
TRACE: Well let's go in there and look at where
the real stuff is.
[BEEP]
TRACE: Hey, you hear that sound, Johnny, that sound that
goes [BEEP]?
JOHNNY DANG: Yeah.
TRACE: You need to change it so it goes "bling."
JOHNNY DANG: That's a good idea.
We do a lot of custom piece, necklace.
So, it's personalized like this one.
This is for JD.
TRACE: It almost looks like it could be the knocker on a door
when you come to the house.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
JOHNNY DANG: That's good-looking.
TRACE: I've got a lot of good ideas.
Maybe I could start working with you.
I need some extra money.
JOHNNY DANG: This is the one I special custom for Snoop with
his original hand.
I took the picture, he held this one, and
I make it off him.
TRACE: Can we see your grill?
JOHNNY DANG: Yeah, definitely.
TRACE: Johnny, you didn't lose your grill, did you?
How much is your grill worth?
JOHNNY DANG: About $20,000.
TRACE: So right now you just put your $20,000 thing down
and you don't know where it is?
JOHNNY DANG: I'm going to find.
I'm not going to lose.
I have a second one like this one.
They call it TVJ.
TRACE: TV Johnny.
JOHNNY DANG: That's how we do.
TRACE: Well thank you very much for
meeting with us today.
Super interesting, super fascinating.
Good luck.
JOHNNY DANG: Thank you so much.
TRACE: I got to work on my handshake.

I couldn't afford any of the grills that Johnny
Dang had for sale.
But what I realized was everybody had a t-shirt with
their face on it.
So I thought I'd see if I could afford one of those.
This is my man, Sleek.
SLEEK: Sleek.
TRACE: He runs the airbrush store.
Tell me what you do here, Sleek.
SLEEK: Airbrush t-shirts nonstop-- shoes, walls,
helmets, caps.
Whatever you can come up with, we can produce.
[MUSIC]
MAN: Aw, come on, now.
[LAUGHTER]
FBI agent.
[LAUGHTER]
TRACE: Once you got the clothes, and got the jewelry,
gotta get yourself a ride.
The kind of car to have in Houston, if you want to roll
with the big boys, is a slab--
slow, loud, and banging.
[RAP]
TRACE: I like this car.
What years is this?
BALDHEAD: '73.
Chevy Impala.
TRACE: How long have you had it?
BALDHEAD: About eight years.
That's how we do it down South.
That's how we do it.
Stay customized.
Slab.
TRACE: Nice.
BALDHEAD: Custom, baby.
[RAP]
It's a slab.
We deck everything out with the rims, the pop trunk,
Lamborghini doors, the music.
[RAP]
TRACE: Not moving very fast, are we?
BALDHEAD: No, we just in the traffic,
crawling through here.
Snail's pace.
Checking it out.
Everybody checking us out, seeing what the business is.
WILLIE D: The guys get the cars for the women.
Because that's what it's about.
Women love cars.
[RAP]
[INAUDIBLE]

[RAP AND CHEERING]
TRACE: There's a lot of things I learned about rap music when
I was in Houston.
One of the things that I didn't know was how hard all
these guys work.
It's incredible.
Guys are always hustling.
So every time you walk up somewhere, your pockets are
filled with fliers and stickers.
And everywhere they go it's a new promotion.
And they got a new CD.
And they're doing all this stuff.
It's nothing like some lame little indie rockers here in
Brooklyn who are moping around.
They're businessmen, and then they're rappers.
[RAP]
BALDHEAD: You got to grind and put it down
every day, every night.
Live it.
Talk it.
Want it.
Every day.
And it's going to go down for you, baby.
[RAP]
KILLAHOE: [INAUDIBLE] music more than anything.
We are young black entrepreneurs.
You know what I'm saying, not a gang.
DOUGIE D: We were born to be entrepreneurs down here.
BALDHEAD: Welcome to the South Side.
This is going to be my project right here.
KB: KB da Kidnapper, Street Military.
CL'CHE': My name is Cl'che'.
That's spelled C-L-apostrophe-C-H-E. I'm on
myspace.com, too.
You can check it out.
BALDHEAD: You can check me out on myspace.com/bald
headentetainment.
LIL B: Backslash dirty, T-H-I-R-D.
CL'CHE': Check out all my albums, my
undergrounds, mix tapes.
I'm doing one [INAUDIBLE]
right now.
SHOWTYME: Got the Showtyme block party DVD fixing to get
here, hit the streets.
DOUGIE D: We have this new cologne called Pure Pizazz.
BUN B: Artists in Houston out here, more than most other
regions are primarily businessmen first.
They took all the fun out of this shit for us out here.
All the making a record and going somewhere and giving
someone your demo, hoping you get a deal.
We did that shit.
We tried that shit for years, got turned down.
Every door slammed in your face.
[RAP]
BUN B: None of guys ever thought they'd ever get a
major recording deal.
Most of them had seen people try before them.
Some of them had tried themselves.
These guys learned to make what they needed to make
happen outside of the system.
We just said, fuck it.
And it's that fuck it mentality that gets these cats
great deals.
And they will take advantage of the game like they want to.
[RAP]
KB: I started off in the Street
Military back in the '90s.
We put out first record out in '91, on Gerard Records.
Back then we were selling records without getting no
radio play.
We made our mark on the streets.
The radio ain't make us.
We made our mark on the streets.
TRACE: These guys operate outside the major
record label systems.
They make more money selling it out of the back of their
car, selling it on the street, hustling it themselves, than
they would ever make if they signed a deal.
MAN: Better watch out for us.
We got a lot of big things coming.
TRACE: It's rumored that DJ Screw sold something like this
50,000 copies of a single mix.
BUN B: I think the screw sound, and the fact that
someone like Screw was selling these thousands of mix tapes
out of his house, and people were getting all this big
local fame and shit off of mix tape songs.
And then that was selling 40,000, 50,000 units based on
this type of stuff.
They weren't just new artists looking for a deal.
They were businessmen.
And if they wanted to try to come down here and use us to
latch onto the Southern music by a market, it's
going to cost them.
Because we're already tied into the market.
And we don't need them to get our music to the people.
[RAP]
KB: All I need is distribution.
$8 a CD at wholesale price.
Fuck another record company trying to fuck me.
Hey, it's over with.
You heard me?
[RAP]
We made the vibration over time.
DOPE E: And by sticking together through trials and
showing everybody how to do their shit fully, that has a
lot to do with it.
And that same attitude is what other Coalition members did.
Each one teach one.
I started showing all the ones [INAUDIBLE] growing up with.
That's one thing.
All you got to do is tell us.
And tell the next person.
We got that shit, as long as you tell us.
J CHILL: I remember a point in time when we used to go
retirement studio, shit like that.
We ain't got to do that no more.
TRACE: There's a real tradition in Houston of
putting your money back into your home recording studio.
So when you go to somebody like Devin the Dude's place,
you're totally blown away by his setup.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DEVIN THE DUDE: This has been happening for a while, Coughee
Brotha Tony and Boomer Henfield, they
started back in the day.
They old man called [INAUDIBLE].

Drink a cup of coffee, [INAUDIBLE]
We always incorporate that with the rhymes and what we've
been doing over the years.
TRACE: The guys are extremely prolific.
They all rap on each other's records.
Some of them are putting out 10, 15, 20 records a year.
WILLIE D: There are some grinding.
There are some true grinders in this business today.
These dudes work, work, work, work, work.
They got killer work ethics.
BALDHEAD: You got to get up off that ass
and put work down.
If you don't represent you, who's going to
represent you for you?
Everybody cry about this cat, this cat, done that.
Let me tell you something.
You gotta grind, baby.
[RAP]
DOPE E: It's really just dedication and unity.
It's just us sticking together.
And saying, no matter what, I'm going to put SPC first.
And I'm going to do this motherfucking music.
(FREESTYLING) niggers, they shoot, rob banks.
Most of these people, they come around in a Hummer tank.
When you got some real motherfuckers that hook up
together, that's the vibration.
That's what happen.
D ONE: (FREESTYLING) She said, oh no.
I had to break her off slow.
Come through the South Side, [INAUDIBLE].
BUN B: We watch hip hop.
We want people gaining strength and numbers.
So that's all we did, was apply that shit to what we
were doing.
We didn't invent nothing.
[RAP]
BUN B: Initially, we all were selling Houston.
But now, we get to come together as a collective and
say, we are Houston.
Some of us don't get along-- hell a lot of people don't get
along with each other.
But, when it comes to Houston, to the bigger picture, we
going put bullshit aside and stand up for the city.
J CHILL: They should do it like the big white dudes in
them companies, and shit.
They might not like each other.
But shit, they'll go to work, and make money together.
And say, fuck it on weekend.
Don't ask me what the fuck I did when I'm at home, nigger.
You just do your shit.
I'm going to do mine.
We going make this money together.
It's a beautiful thing, if you just take care of business and
do your shit, and don't make it about that bullshit.
[RAP]
TRACE: And one of the biggest hustlers of them all, the guy
who's had the most profound impact to this
point, is DJ Screw.
[RAP]

[RAP]
TRACE: The sound that Houston is most well known for today,
which is now known as chopped and screwed, literally started
with one guy--
DJ Screw in Houston, Texas.
[RAP]
MAN: This the king right here.
He's DJ Screw.
DOUGIE D: H-Town, we really have a sound of our own.
South Side swag and a sound that can't just really be
emulated all [INAUDIBLE].
Everybody who [INAUDIBLE] all screwed up, we is screwed up.
[RAP]
BUN B: A lot of people, they don't know about DJ Screw.
DJ Screw is a local DJ from Houston, Texas who invented
his own style of mixing.
What he did was he slowed the records down a little past
half speed.
Kind of blended the songs together, a little bit easy.
And it was something that fit the slowed down, laid back,
chill Southern vibe of Houston.
That started around '92, early '93.
Got nationwide fame around '95.
[RAP]
TRACE: The idea seems to have come from him when he was
drinking this codeine cough syrup.
Now what syrup does is it's loaded with codeine.
It's a narcotic induced kind of relaxation.
You're really kind of out of it, and everything is
amorphous and cloudy and very slow.
So DJ Screw is in his bedroom.
He's up on the weed.
He's up on codeine, and he starts slowing records down in
an attempt to get them to sound
exactly the way he feels.
[MUSIC SLOWING DOWN]
KLONDIKE KAT: While they was listening to they slowed down
music, they was drinking they codeine.
Guys, including Screw, that hung with Screw,
that's what they did.
[RAP]
[INAUDIBLE]
1980-motherfucking-5 [INAUDIBLE]
[MUSIC]
BUN B: With rap, mostly just kind of writing the same
rhymes and making most of the same beats over and over
again, this was some new shit, some original shit that no
other city, no other region could lay claim to.
And it gave Houston its own regional identity, apart from
everything else that was going on.
TRACE: Screw started making these tapes at house, the
Great Tapes.
They became a cultural phenomenon.
MAC NYCE: When Screw was doing his thing at his crib, and he
had people coming like it was a club.
His whole street would be lined up with cars, people
trying to buy Screw tapes.
LANCE: You never forget the first time you heard DJ Screw.
And without fail you heard it from a car.
And you would hear this booming music coming out with
this really low, slowed down voice.
And without fail, if you were standing with a group of
people in those first few years, one of them always had
this really puzzled look on his face.
Somebody else would say, oh, that's DJ Screw.
[DJ SCREW TRACK]
Screw ended up getting a real big following on the south
side of town, to the southwest, to the north side.
He had a lot of different emcees together to come and
freestyle on the mix tapes that he was making.
People like Lil KeKe, ESG, the Botany Boys, [INAUDIBLE], a
lot of different people represented Screwed Up
Clique, Li'l Flip.
LANCE: He would talk to you during the tapes.
He would just emcee through the whole thing.
[DJ SCREW TRACK]
TRAE: Screw was our form of radio.
That's who had us going.
Even if he wasn't flowing on the tapes, he had
the songs on tape.
If you song made it to a Screw tape, people paid attention to
it real serious.
MAC NYCE: Everybody and they mama was saying it's
not going to work.
Everybody, from rappers to record execs, were saying it's
not going to work.
How are you going to screw a record and put that worldwide?
We did it.
And it blew up.
[INAUDIBLE]
all that blew up, with Lil KeKe and them,
and the rest is history.

TRACE: This was shot on November 14, 2000, just two
days before DJ Screw passed away of heart failure.

So what exactly killed DJ Screw?
A lot of people tried to blame codeine.
But some people really believe that he just
worked himself to death.
[DJ SCREW TRACK]
TRAE: We on a monument right now.
This Screwed Up Records, [INAUDIBLE].
This shop means a lot.
No matter what city you come from, you could be coming from
Kansas, you could be coming from Oklahoma, anywhere, they
always come down here to get these Screw tapes.
BUN B: There's probably really only one--
I would say probably three landmarks as far that's
significant to the rap scene--
Screwed Up Records, Rap-a-Lot Records, and wherever I'm at.
[DJ SCREW TRACK]
BUN B: This is kind of like a record store.
But you can't really go and buy somebody's
album that's out.
This shit only sells Screw tapes and Screw CDs.
And they do damn good business.
They don't have to sell nobody else's shit.
They never had to.
People from all over the country, all over the world,
people show a lot of love.
[DJ SCREW TRACK]
BUN B: Screw's been gone for a couple years now.
But we keep the store going.
It's important for us to try to make sure we keep this
thing going.
I done bought every tape and every CD they
sell in here, twice.
And I'm going to keep buying them.
[DJ SCREW TRACK]
TRAE: He took a lot of us under his wing, and made us
who we are.
He molded us.
MAC NYCE: Most of the people that you seeing out here right
now, MTV, and BET, DJ Screw, he the one laid the foundation
for these cats.
From the ESGs the Flips, they going double platinum and all
this because of the foundation DJ Screw did.
[DJ SCREW TRACK]
BUN B: Screw could have made a lot more money off the tapes.
He could have been a lot more famous.
But it wasn't about him.
It was about the city.
And that's the type of shit I be trying to stretch, every
time we get to feeling our motherfucking self, or
thinking it's all about us, we got to remember that it's
never about us.
It's about the city.
It's about the hood, and the people we represent.
And that's what Screw taught us.
And that's why we hold him in such high regard.

Screwed Up Records, or RIP DJ Screw, a real H-Town legend.

[RAP]
KILLAHOE: New York, [INAUDIBLE] they drink.
West Coast known for they weed.
Houston, we known for our thing.
SCRIPT: This is lean oil.
It's something going put you to sleep, on your ass, if you
drink too much.

Got many names, they call it purple stuff, call it
[INAUDIBLE].

LANCE: It's codeine promethazine.
It's a slow drug.
It slows everything down.
I think in order to understand syrup you really have to
understand Houston.
Because Houston is a big sprawling slow hot city.
We have nine months of summer.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]

LANCE: When they say a two, a four, an eight, they're talk
about the ounces.
So a lot of people sip maybe a two each day.
Two ounces mixed into a Styrofoam cup with any kind of
soda, like strawberry soda, Sprite, anything just really,
really sweet.
KYU BOI: I fixing to get you tore up on some syrup.
This H-Town lean right here.
I'mma pour some of this out.
You ain't got to be nervous or nothing.
I know this your first time sipping, but I'm going to show
you a good time.
LANCE: It's not a drug that is consumed with an ugly use.
You don't have to tie a rubber band around your arm and shoot
anything into your arm.
You sip it out of a cup.
[MUSIC]
LANCE: I don't think it occurs to a lot of people that
there's anything really wrong with it.
MAC NYCE: It's like, to me, marijuana, drinking a beer,
having a sip of alcohol.
That's how I look at it.
KYU BOI: I'm going to show you how to mix it up.
We going to start you off with a deuce.
TRACE: How do you know how far to go down?
By how much of this you got?
KYU BOI: Yeah, how many pints you got.
AGONY LIFE: The syrup, it's part our hustle.
It's not a fad.
It's just a way of life.
Syrup been around here before y'all was born.
BIG RON: My mom and them was on drink.
They used to take a teaspoon and drink it, [INAUDIBLE].

FREEZE: We known for it.
It's something we do.
But it's not the only place.
But we definitely did put the light on it.
KYU BOI: And then we going take this, uh, uh, uh, uh, do
this like here.
And this where the wonder starts.
Gotta have steady hands.
This is the real stuff.
TRACE: Let me give it a shot.
I'm pretty sure I can do it.
My hands are real steady.
I'm feeling good already.
It's obvious that not everyone in Houston is up on the syrup
24/7, but there's a hell of a lot of songs about it.
D ONE: (FREESTYLING) Don't hate when you see me
[INAUDIBLE]
I never coming down, still sipping on lean.
KLONDIKE KAT: See a lot of people get flack because they
say, well you do, that's all they talking
about, sipping syrup.
Everybody got their own way of putting across what they do,
or what they see in their hood.
As long as you make good music, that's how I see it.
That's the plus.

BUN B: For the next young rappers, if they don't just
speak on some aspect of it, it's almost like they won't be
supporting the city.
Especially we got female emcees nowadays.
They going to have to in some way incorporate that kind of
shit in their shit.
And it is not sexy to see a woman sipping on syrup,
getting all fat in the fucking face, and
smoking Black and Milds.
It's a part of life.
But that shit ain't sexy.
KYU BOI: You gotta let it marinade enough.
See, that's the marination [INAUDIBLE].

That is wonderful.
TRACE: Aw, yeah.
KYU BOI: See how that feel?
Feel good?
TRACE: It's nice in your hands?
Is it legal to drink this?
KYU BOI: Yeah, as long as the police don't catch you,
drinking, anything's legal.
TRACE: I heard a rumor that they have this strip that they
can dip into your soda and see if it has any soda.
Is that true, do you think?
FREEZE: Yeah, that's actually true.
I knew somebody they kind of got put upon them when they
caught them with a case.
And it's like a felony now.
So it's a lot of stuff out here they're trying to catch
people with.
But that's actually true.
It turns a color.
TRACE: Can I ask you a question?
Is that OK?
COP: No comment.
TRACE: That was a no comment.
KILLAHOE: It's a good and a negative thing.
Because it ain't that many of us out here on it.
But we love it.
Same time we got a lot of us that do love it.
And we going do it.
You see my white cup right here.
I'm a member of the group.
TRACE: Do we use a straw, or something?
KYU BOI: No, we don't need no straws.
Straight to the bottom.
That's the purple stuff.
Only in H-Town can you get this good stuff.
TRACE: It looks like Barney.
KB: And the negative thing is if you get too leaned out, how
you going to go in the studio and really put
down a bunch of work?
So you got to know when enough is enough.
Don't get too leaned out to where you can't take care of
your business.
Me, myself, and I, I drink lean sometimes, too.
Matter of fact, I love it.
I love it.
TRACE: I don't think you can drink it that fast anyway.
It's real--
KYU BOI: No, you can't drink it real fast.
You got to sssip.
TRACE: Actually, you start to like it after a while.
Don't you?
It really gets in your mouth like glue, doesn't it?
MO LEW: It tastes good.
It tastes real good, huh?
[INAUDIBLE] tastes real good, huh?
Tastes like Jolly Ranchers.
(EXTREMELY SLOWED DOWN) Like Jolly Ranchers.
MO LEW: I had bronchitis, so I used to give
prescriptions for it.
I hit that purple stuff, and, shit, I was ready to roll for
the rest of the week.
Hit the studio, hit the J-O-B. I was good.
TRACE: Makes you want to drink a lot more.
MAC NYCE: [INAUDIBLE]
just basically buy syrup.
We got cats who like to do the syrup and jam they screw.
But we got--
today we had cats like KB, from Street Military.
His style is completely different from the original
Screwed Up sound.
And then the Screwed Up Clique had a different style.
So it's not all just based on this one, everything's slow
and you've got to be syruped out to listen.
It ain't even like that.

SCRIPT: Yeah, you roll some up, and sip that, it's really
a killer combination.
TRACE: Well let's do it.
I haven't smoked any pot at all.
SCRIPT: You ain't smoked no weed?
TRACE: Let's get a little bit-- let's get on the weed.
SCRIPT: You haven't smoked nothing?
Shit.
[RAP]
TRACE: The guys are just smoking weed like it's going
out of style.
God almighty, they smoke a lot of weed.
I've never been around guys smoking much pot.
[RAP]
SCRIPT: That's what I'm talking about.
Did you see how he paused and came open?
He was feeling it.
TRACE: I am.
I really am feeling it.
SCRIPT: That's what I'm talking about.
TRACE: I didn't think I would even say that.
How does the syrup make you feel?
Like there's a veil between you and the rest of the world.
And all of a sudden your whole body is warm.
[MUSIC]
TRACE: Kyu Boi asked me this morning how I slept.
KYU BOI: Shit, like a baby?
TRACE: I told him I slept like a baby.
I woke up every two hours, crying.
[LAUGHTER]
KYU BOI: That's what it do to you, man.
That's what it do to you.
[MUSIC]
[COUGHING]