DJ Screw- 3 'N The Mornin' Pt. 2 (Blue)

My favorite thing about being a music junkie, especially in this day and age, is that pretty much all the music that managed to survive into the 21st century, is now, and will likely always be, available in cyberspace.  So, unlike in the past, if you missed out on a particular artist or record during their/it's heyday, you can always backtrack whenever you feel like it and rediscover something you may have ignored, written off, or just not been aware of in the past.  Of course, there is also the argument that having constant acesss to free music is damaging in it's own way, and I'll be the first to admit it can be a bit overwhelming at times, but generally speaking, I'd say that having an entire galaxy of music options at my fingertips is much more of a blessing than a curse; my love for and obsession with this DJ Screw mixtape from 1996 is a perfect example of why.

I remember hearing about DJ Screw way back in 1999 while I was still in high school, shortly before he died.  The descriptions of his style interested me immedaitely, though at the time there was no real way for me access his stuff.  A few years later when I finally did have the chance to check his music out, I was largely unimpressed.  I have no idea now what record I listened to or anything like that, but I remember thinking that the music sounded much more normal than I was expecting given the bizarre descriptions I had read regarding his style of mixing (slowed way down and chopped up).  So for many years I just didn't bother with DJ Screw.  I assumed that he probably had some great shit out there somewhere, but attemtping to wade through 200+ mixtapes to find it required far more time and energy than I was willing to spend.  It actually wasn't until last year (2010) that I was finally able to begin to appreciate the genius of the "Screwed Up Click".

It was, funnily enough, an off-the-cuff post by a friend on facebook that instigated my new found interest and discovery.  After a mention of DJ Screw in the aformentioned post, I commented that I'd never really been able to get into his stuff, and another friend quickly came to the rescue recommending the record currently being discussed.  Ironically, I intially downloaded the wrong album (there are several '3 'N the Mornin' mixes apparently), though the one I got was also quite good.  It featured a remix of Dr. Dre's classic "Nigga Wit a Gun" which had me smacking my forehead and cursing myself for having taken ten years to get around to DJ Screw within a matter of seconds.

After realizing I had gotten the wrong mixtape, I quickly went back for the recommended one; it didn't take long (maybe 2 weeks) for it to become my favorite hip-hop/rap album of all time.  The record features mostly fairly obscure rappers from Houston, DJ Screw's home city, getting the ultimate chopped and screwed treatment.  The mix opens with a warning to 'watch yo mutafuckin' screw' (screw in this sense referring to prescription strength codiene/promethazine cough syrup, a concoction which is highly coveted in the Houston scene for it's psychotropic effects), before seguing into an "Salin' da South" by rapper ESG.  The song is alright, nothing really amazing, but it sets the tone for the album, and I really dig the combination of the dark, violent lyrics and the smooth, funky background which Screw layers over it.

The album really gets kickin' with the next song, "Smokin' and Leanin" a disorienting and seemingly unreal tribute to the combined effects of pot and codiene by the fantastically named Botany Boyz.  The boyz mumble awkwardly over a repetitive and painfully slow backbeat peppered with psychedelic synth stabs, and a chrous which commands listeners to 'smoke!  until you can't smoke no more' and 'lean! everybody in your dreams'.  The song is definitely a stand out on the record, surpassed in quality only by the even stranger "Elbows Swangin'" which I'll get to in a moment.  After some very unnatural and bizarre sounding scratching, "Smokin' and Leanin'" turns into Al-D's "No Way Out", a mellow jam that laments the cycle of violence and poverty in ghetto life, before flipping the script and assuring anyone thinking about fucking with Al-D that they can plan on seeing 'ten of their best men with bullets in their chins'.  Following this is a brief acapella track by Mack 10 mixed to the beat of "No Way Out".

After the Mack 10 track, is a song called "Serving a Deuce" and I can't remember who does it, but I don't really care since it's the only song on the mix that I regularly skip.  "Sippin' Codiene" by Big Moe (who ironically died of health problems believed to be related to his long term abuse of codiene) follows, and segues perfectly into the album's true masterpiece: "Elbow's Swangin'".  Performed by Houston's .380, Screw slows the song nearly to a stop making the already extremely deep vocals on the chrous sound positively inhuman.  Like on "Smokin' and Leanin" the vocals here wind up an odd mumble, barely if, ever, discernable, gruff and babbling.  I haven't heard the original version of the song, but I would imagine that even without the chopped and screwed treatment it's quite the feat of weirdness.

So now, I'm at the start of the seventh paragraph on this record, and only halfway through the tracklist, and I'm wondering at this point if I should continue my song by song analysis.  Though it's somewhat tempting, I think I'm gonna call it a day on this one.  I will say that even though I like the first half slightly more, the second half of this album is certaily not slouchin'.  My second side faves are the weirdly hilarious "High with the Blanksta" by Point Blank and the tough as shit "Pimp the Pen" by Lil Keke.  But to get the scoop on those, you'll just have to track them down yourself.  Here is a good place to start.