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But focusing on influence alone almost appears like an affront to his talents. Screw wasnt just a building block or a point on a timeline, the guy made great stand alone mixtapes that still sound as fresh as they ever did. Hundreds of them. We could talk about his slowing method and I could use words like murky and hazy and invoke drug spirits but you might have all heard that already. Instead lets consider what I think was Screws greatest talent as a selector selection. Where many DJs allow their hands to be tied by hits and classics, Screw was only ever beholden to own convictions. He built his own canon. I love, for example, that C-Bo was his favorite rapper. In his world Bay Region mob music and old school New York 808 work outs and the lots of twisted branches of the NWA family tree and Steel Pulse and Street Military had been all interchangeable parts. He discovered their commonalities and then literally drew out an entirely new genre of music from them. Style is immaterial, it might be borrowed and repurposed and butchered. But honest and dependable taste is really a true rarity. R.I.P. DJ Screw.
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