THIS YEAR MARKS the 30th anniversary of Chapter 012: June 27th, a near-immortal 35-minute freestyle mixtape featuring some of the most iconic Houston rappers, including DJ Screw, the late and legendary underground artist credited with bringing his signature slow, chopped, and screwed syrupy sound to the city.
The date the mixtape was recorded, June 27, is now a Houston holiday.
What some refer to as DJ Screw Day commemorates the rapper, who died
on November 16, 2000, of a codeine overdose. But many people have some
misconceptions about the day, wrongly assuming the date marks the rapper’s birthday, which falls on July 20.
The real story begins with DeMo Sherman and his 26th birthday. A rapper, DJ, and Houston OG, Sherman is the man who conceived June 27th—who pushed for something more structured than a typical Screw session, who brought Big Moe into the room, and made sure Yungstar was there, too. Without DeMo, there’s no June 27th. So, on a brisk Friday evening in January, I met with him at a local coffee shop to get the story, in his own words. What followed was one of the grandest tales in Houston music history.
This Q&A has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Houstonia: How did you come to know DJ Screw?
DeMo Sherman: My sister was trying to get me to meet him. She kept begging me to meet the man, and I’m like, “I don’t want to meet this dude. I don’t know him.”
I was helping her move, and I heard the music she was playing with some real nice mixing going on. I kept looking at the speakers playing because it was a stereo, and [the music] was dragging so slow. I was like, “What’s wrong with your stereo?” She said, “The guy I want you to meet—that’s his style.”
Man, when I met him, we connected right away because I was a rapper, but I was a DJ, too. I drove up, and he was at the end of the driveway. He was like, “You DeMo?” and I was like, “You Screw?” and we both just bust out laughing because my sister was bugging us to meet. We talked about the rap scene in Houston, how it is in Texas, who we liked in rap, and who we didn’t like. We talked for hours that night.
How was the music scene at the time of the mixtape?
I came up as a rapper. From day one, when I heard the Sugar Hill Gang, I started rapping. So, when hip-hop hit in the ’80s, I was on time. Then, the late ’80s and the early ’90s came, and it wasn’t cool to rap no more. The people that were rapping were K-Rino, me, and all of the Houston OGs—we rap. We had the Geto Boys. We had Street Military. It was mainly underground.
How did the plans come together on your birthday?
Around two weeks before, I made a tape, Dancing Candy. I’ve made a lot of Screw tapes, and every tape used to sound the same to me. Just: shout-out, rapping, rapping, rapping, flowing, flowing, flowing—tape over. And, you know, I’m a rapper. I make records. I make songs, so I like a little bit more structure. It’s really about the music.
Me and Screw were the oldest dudes. I was like, “Man, we gotta do something different.” We just did the “3 ‘N the Morning” with Big Moe, but he had never really been on Screw tapes. I was like, “He can sing and make hooks. He can make it sound like a record and not just flowing, flowing, flowing.”
From left: Rapper Al-D, DeMo, and DJ Screw.
It was early in the day when we got ready to do Dancing Candy. It was me, Big Moe, Haircut Joe, [Big] Pokey, Key-C, and Screw. When you come in Screw’s house through the front, you got a couch facing the door—a love seat. I sat down right there. Everyone was like, “DeMo, don’t sit down. You’re going to fall asleep.” I was like, “I’m a grown man. I’m not about to fall asleep and miss my tape.”
When I woke up, I heard them rapping in the back. I heard Key-C say, “DeMo done fell asleep, but we still gone wreck.” I laughed. They think I’m asleep, but I’m out here ready. I get up and run to the back. All of them are sitting in a circle listening to the tape, maybe for a third time. Man, I missed the tape! I was so mad. I was like, “Screw, we’re going to do another one on my b-day.”
Screw said, “When is your b-day?” I said, “June 27.” He said, “Well, there it go: June 27th.” I said, “Everybody that’s here gonna be the same dudes on June 27th.”
When we got ready to do June 27th, I had left out Yungstar. I had recently met him, and he was trying to get up [with meeting Screw], and I wasn’t going to let him just meet DeMo, and bam, “I’m in there.” But I told him we would do June 27th together, and he didn’t leave my side until after that day.
It was a Thursday. I’ll never forget it. We stopped by Bird’s house. Every stop we made, the group got bigger. By the time we got to Screw’s house—oh my goodness! It was like a party, but it absolutely wasn’t a party. There were so many people in there. People out there are playing pool. It was crazy.
Before the tape, I [finally introduced Screw to] Yungstar. Now I got Key-C, who’s 14, got Yungstar at 15. They were rapping back and forth in the kitchen like a New York City battle. It was magic. Haircut Joe had to say, “Stop! It’s time to make the tape.”
DJ Screw in the studio
We do Side A. Side A is jamming. Then, we flip over to Side B. When we started the freestyle, we already had the beat planned.
As a matter of fact, a few days beforehand, we couldn’t find Screw. The day before June 27, Screw is like, “Hey, what’s going on?” It’s now a famous line on the Screw tape: Yungstar says, “Screw had a seizure.” [Screw] was telling us, “Man, I was in the hospital, I had a seizure…I gotta stop drinking so much.”
By the time we got to [Side B], it was like an out-of-body experience. Everybody knew, subconsciously, on the strength of that Dancing Candy tape—just hearing that one, with Big Moe singing—everybody knew [it was going to be big]. You could sense it. You see everybody looking in everybody’s eyes like, “You’re making a tape.” It was so hot in there. The energy from everybody—it was the most magical thing I’ve ever been involved with.
How was the mixtape initially received?
It takes about a week to get the tape back. We got it on July 4. We went to Screw’s house at like 10 in the morning to get the tape. We went to Big Moe’s house. Everybody got, like, 10 tapes because everybody knew to get enough. When we got to Surfside Beach, everybody had the tape. Everybody was jamming it already. I don’t know how everybody got it. I just know it was almost like…hearing your song on the radio for the first time.
You know the streets rule the music in hip-hop. If the streets ain’t saying it’s hot, it ain’t hot. But we had the tape for two hours, and every car we passing on the beach is jamming it.
People have mistaken your birthday for DJ Screw’s birthday. Have you made an effort to clear the air?
A lot of people who know me always fought for me. People will say it was Screw’s birthday, Big Moe’s birthday, Pokey’s birthday…hell, it might have been your birthday. The people who know me, it hurt them the most. They know the work I put into the music and how my heart is in it. It hurts them more than it hurts me.
In the beginning, I used to get mad, too. Then, people are dying. How long can you be mad? It takes a lot of muscles to make a frown.
I used to take it as disrespect, but then I realized this is
bigger than me. It’s bigger than DeMo. It’s historical. It’s groundbreaking. It’s Houston. It’s the lifestyle. I had to accept that it was bigger than me.
DJ Screw is known as one of Houston’s most iconic figures.
As a friend of DJ Screw, what are some ways you honor his memory since his passing?
Just by jamming Screw, keeping his name moving, saying his name, keeping him alive, having flashbacks, and like I say, jam. I jam what I was listening to then, still right now. I jam some of the new rap, but not too much because it’s weird to me. And I know it’s supposed to be weird because I’m older.
The 30th anniversary of the Screw Tapes is this year, but at the end of the day, it’s still your special day. How do you plan to celebrate your birthday?
I want to be here. That’s my main thing: being here. Usually, on my birthday, I like to get in the car by myself. I hit neighborhoods of people that I know—people in Fifth Ward that know me. I like to ride and bless people with my presence that aren’t used to getting it. Last year, I was home, and I had a lot of people at my house barbecuing, because, you know, I can’t be touched when it comes to barbecue.
