Watts finds the right tempo to make everything come off that much fatter, hitting the right speed to drag out those bass beats and using impeccable timing to chop the right words in the verses. If you’re a fan of either the Geto Boys or the slow down style, you couldn’t possibly ask for better results.
To solidify the mix they brought in the famed Swishahouse producer Michael ‘5000’ Watts, and he does the Geto Boys classics justice. It’s possible this album may have a limited distribution or number of units sold as a result, but then again Rap-A-Lot Records obviously thought enough of the union to put out the album themselves when many of the “Screw and Chop” albums that are released are bootleg versions of popular Southern albums. The Geto Boys “Greatest Hits Screwed and Chopped” is therefore either the marriage of two things you absolutely love, or the nightmare of two things you can’t possibly stand. While purists will argue nothing should be called Screw sound or style unless it was done by the originator, the late great DJ Screw, the name has stuck and the term “Screwed and Chopped” has come to describe any mix where the songs have been slowed done and the lyrics cut up and repeated by the producer in either analog (turntable) or digital (computer) fashion. It has a cult following among hip-hop in general, enjoying much larger popularity in the South where it originated, where some said the style was a direct result of the amount of “sizzurp” MC’s and DJ’s sipped in large quantites, due to cough syrup having the effect of making everything feel “Slow Motion” like Juvenile with a fat-ass broad. Screw and chop music doesn’t rely on big-time distribution or national exposure either. Seriously though, the Geto Boys were the group that put Houston, Texas on the map by being dope as fuck and selling units by the truckload nationwide with little to no radio play. The Geto Boys always promised their audience they would be violent, sadistic, foul-mouthed and sexually explicit – and those were their GOOD qualities. Neither one is apologetic about what it has to offer. The Geto Boys brand of hip-hop music – you either like it or you don’t. Screw and chop – you either like it or you don’t.