He was born in Bastrop, Texas to Robert Earl Davis, Sr. DJ Screw had lived in Smithville, Houston, and Los Angeles; at one point his father took him to Houston in order to keep him from trouble. There DJ Screw lived in a working class, mostly African American neighborhood near Hobby Airport described by Michael Hall of Texas Monthly as "hard-edged."DJ Screw dropped out of Sterling High School during his 10th grade year and focused on music.
He began deejaying at age 13, and started his trademark slowed down mixes in 1984. During the early 1990s, he invited some of Houston's most renowned rappers from the south side of the city to flow on his Screw tapes. This eventually led to the formation of the Screwed Up Click. What originally was only a fad of Houston, Chopped and Screwed music started getting more widespread attention with the introduction of p2p programs such as Napster in the late 90s. This ultimately led to DJ Screw getting recognition across the country and being known as one of biggest faces in modern hip-hop.
www.screwedupclick.com.
After spending most of the 1990s as an infamous local phenomenon in Houston, TX, DJ Screw suddenly found himself gaining sudden notoriety before his unfortunate death in late 2000. The Houston DJ made a name for himself primarily because of his uncanny mixing style, which found him pitching down his records to a lumbering and quite eerie pace. Over the course of the '90s, what began as novelty actually became a rather lucrative venture for Screw, who produced hundreds of mix tapes, with some estimates projecting his total number of tapes topping over a thousand; furthermore, he sold the tapes at his Houston-based record store, Screwed Up Records and Tapes. Oddly enough, he preferred to release his mixes almost exclusively on cassette, though fans often recorded the mixes and traded them via the Internet; in addition, countless "screwed" remixes of popular rap anthems were widely available on Napster thanks to his cultish following.
Yet it's hard to imagine Screw's legacy being what it is if not for his role as an adamant advocate of "syrup sippin'," a Southern rap phenomenon involving codeine-infused cough syrup -- the resulting intoxication induces a hallucinatory state where everything slows down and becomes the senses swirl. As marijuana was to early-'90s gangsta rap, LSD was to late-'60s psychedelic rock, ecstasy was to late-'80s rave -- and so on -- the syrup sippin' advocated by Screw's trippy hip-hop mixes led to a small drug movement within the late-'90s Dirty South genre, reaching its zenith with Three 6 Mafia's hit "Sippin' on Some Syrup" in 2000. It's hard to deny that this phenomenon wasn't as important to Screw's popularity as his music was (especially considering some of his tape titles: Syrup & Soda, Syrup Sippers, Sippin' Codeine, etc.) Still, Screw did serve as a leader for Houston's burgeoning rap scene; his home studio, The Screw Shop, functioned as the home base for what was loosely referred to as the Screwed Up Click, including semi-successful rappers such as Big Pokey and Lil' Keke, along with about 30 others were known locally.
Ironically, when Screw was found dead in his studio of a fatal heart attack at the tender age of 29 on the morning of November 16, 2000, the Houston Chronicle published a story stating that police suspected Screw of overdosing on the same syrup that he so adamantly advocated. Weeks later the theory proved valid, making the artist the victim of his own self-promoted phenomenon. More unfortunate, though, was the loss of Screw to Houston's fledging scene, which seemed on the verge of being nationally recognized as a Southern rap mecca. His legacy lived on, though, since his trademark mixing style was by no means exclusive, as countless imitators had arisen in the South by the time of his death, the most noteworthy being the Swisha House and Beltway 8 record labels.
- Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
Inside Looking Out
DJ Screw Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
How can I come up (sitting)
How can I come up,
From the inside looking out
Sitting in there this kind of jail
Spending all my little time
I'm just staying at bars
And about to lose my mind
So I get up to take a shower
For . are everywhere
Saw a trustee eating more than me
And I thought it wasn't fair
And it hurts right here
Stuck in here for a year
Sitting in the county
I'm living in an hourglass
Twiddling my fucking thumbs
Waiting on time to pass
Till my next court date
But if you been to the county
You know you're holding your own fate
In your own hands
About to go in front of the judge
Hoping for a chance
To speak out, and just be heard
To put the scene of the crime in your own words
Thinking witness, man, I doubt to my scenario
Maybe now, but I got one shot
So here I go.
Right now I can't afford to be locked up.
Niggas and the crooks
I keep my dope and that's fucked up
For what I said you know I about to get a gang or time
They found me guilty
And now I'm confined
To an over-crowded cell in the county
For what's my boy said
They billed a hired bounty hunter
To make the most and, you know, stick around
Cause like a beef in the night
I'm damn sure go'n skip town
But who could blame a brother for doing this
But for now I'm on the inside looking out
(Sitting in there this kind of jail)
Sane about to lose my mind
Sitting in the courtroom
I'm staring at the fucking judge
Don't want to plead
Cause I know that I had the drugs
And the justice system is fucked up
Chances of being black and getting off really suck
Cause young black men
Couple of problems
I really
My way
Trying to solve them
Because the judge got me
In oppression
Once in a jail cell
Now I learned my lesson
They found me guilty
And sentenced me 20 to life
They found me guilty
And sentenced me 20 to life
I'm reading page by page
Of the Bible every night
Praying to God to forgive me for my sins
Saying to myself that I'll never do it again
Lying to myself
Now ain't that a damn shame
When I get out this bitch
I'll be jumping back in the game
But for now I better do my time
With good behavior
Walking through the gate my thoughts shout
Cause I'm on the inside out
Cause I'm on the inside looking out.
Feeling bad cause I'm on the inside looking out.
(Sitting in there this kind of jail)
Sane about to lose my mind
Back to the mother fuckin stank
Fuck the dumb shit
Cause this time I'm damn sure
Go'n run the tank
Getting swol' . mother fucker
Thinking about them stank
Ho's coming through this bitch
Dropping niggas by the ankles
And the niggas that's been
Know what I'm talking about
Is my stomach strong enough
To hold this shit
Till I get out
This mother fucker . me
A chamber full of misfits
Three . and a cot
Some hard ass bitch gets
The county's a bitch, boy
That's paranoid as a nigga get
Slap the living shit
Out of a nigga for a cigarette
They got me off the street
Although my life was very fucked up
For jacking for cars
Now I'm jacking for commissary
No time to play bully in the county
Ain't no stars, nigga
Trying to squeeze your head
Through the motha fuckin bars
Bitch take the shoes off your feet
Or even worth it trying to hang you
With the motha fuckin bed sheets
Sleep with your eyes open
If you want to see daylight
Cause when I get out this bitch
I'm damn sure go'n go right
Cause coming up on the street
Is what my life was all about
But how can I come up,
From the inside looking out?
Inside looking out.
In the song "Inside Looking Out," DJ Screw addresses the struggles of life in the county jail. The lyrics express the frustration and hopelessness of the inmates who are trapped and locked up within the walls of the prison, watching the world outside move on without them. The opening lines, "How can I come up? Sitting / How can I come up? / From the inside looking out," set the tone for the song, as Screw laments his current state and the limitations imposed upon him by his incarceration.
The lyrics continue to describe the monotony and despair of life behind bars, with lines such as "Spending all my little time / My driving faster cars / I'm just staying at bars / And about to lose my mind." The rapper highlights the contrast between his current state and the life he had before his time in prison. The song depicts Screw's desperation to escape the confinement he is trapped in and return to a better life.
The lyrics also touch upon issues of racial injustice, as the rapper notes several times that being a black man in the justice system puts him at a disadvantage. The lines "Chances of being black and getting off really suck / Cause young black men / Couple of problems" allude to the inherent bias in the justice system that often makes life harder for black men.
Line by Line Meaning
How can I come up (sitting)
I'm trying to find a way to improve my situation while being stuck in jail
How can I come up,
From the inside looking out
I want to succeed while being trapped in jail
Sitting in there this kind of jail
I'm stuck in a challenging and oppressive environment
Spending all my little time
I'm wasting my time without any clear purpose
My driving faster cars
I'm just staying at bars
I used to enjoy fast cars and bars, but now I'm confined to jail
And about to lose my mind
I'm experiencing mental strain due to my situation
So I get up to take a shower
For . are everywhere
I take a shower despite the lack of privacy in jail
Saw a trustee eating more than me
And I thought it wasn't fair
I noticed someone eating more than me and felt it was unjust
And it hurts right here
Stuck in here for a year
I feel emotional pain and have been imprisoned for a long time
Sitting in the county
I'm living in an hourglass
I'm in jail, and time seems to be moving slowly
Twiddling my fucking thumbs
Waiting on time to pass
I'm waiting idly for time to pass
Till my next court date
But if you been to the county
You know you're holding your own fate
In your own hands
I'm waiting for my next court date, and I know that my fate is in my hands
About to go in front of the judge
Hoping for a chance
To speak out, and just be heard
To put the scene of the crime in your own words
I'm going to court and hoping for an opportunity to tell my side of the story
Thinking witness, man, I doubt to my scenario
Maybe now, but I got one shot
So here I go.
I doubt that there will be any witnesses to support my story, but I'll try my best to present my case
Right now I can't afford to be locked up.
I can't handle being in jail any longer
Niggas and the crooks
I keep my dope and that's fucked up
I'm surrounded by criminals, and I'm guilty of using drugs
For what I said you know I about to get a gang or time
They found me guilty
And now I'm confined
I knew I was going to be caught and given a harsh sentence, and now I'm stuck in jail
To an over-crowded cell in the county
For what's my boy said
They billed a hired bounty hunter
To make the most and, you know, stick around
Cause like a beef in the night
I'm damn sure go'n skip town
I'm in a crowded cell in jail because someone snitched on me, and I know that I might have to run away eventually
But who could blame a brother for doing this
But for now I'm on the inside looking out
I don't blame myself for wanting to escape, but I'm currently trapped in jail
(Sitting in there this kind of jail)
Sane about to lose my mind
I'm slowly losing my sanity while trapped in jail
Sitting in the courtroom
I'm staring at the fucking judge
Don't want to plead
Cause I know that I had the drugs
I'm in court, and I know I'm guilty of using drugs, but I don't want to plead guilty
And the justice system is fucked up
Chances of being black and getting off really suck
Cause young black men
Couple of problems
I really
My way
Trying to solve them
The justice system is biased against Black men, and I'm struggling to overcome the problems that led me to jail
Because the judge got me
In oppression
Once in a jail cell
Now I learned my lesson
And sentenced me 20 to life
I was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, and I've learned my lesson
I'm reading page by page
Of the Bible every night
Praying to God to forgive me for my sins
Saying to myself that I'll never do it again
I'm remorseful for my actions and seeking forgiveness from God
Lying to myself
Now ain't that a damn shame
When I get out this bitch
I'll be jumping back in the game
I'm lying to myself that I'll turn my life around after getting out of jail, but deep down, I know I'll return to a life of crime
But for now I better do my time
With good behavior
Walking through the gate my thoughts shout
Cause I'm on the inside out
I need to serve my sentence with good behavior and stay hopeful even though I'm trapped in jail
Feeling bad cause I'm on the inside looking out.
I'm feeling sad and trapped, being unable to escape jail
Back to the mother fuckin stank
Fuck the dumb shit
Cause this time I'm damn sure
Go'n run the tank
Getting swol' . mother fucker
Thinking about them stank
Ho's coming through this bitch
Dropping niggas by the ankles
And the niggas that's been
Know what I'm talking about
I'm thinking about returning to criminal activity once I get out of jail and getting buff to intimidate others
Is my stomach strong enough
To hold this shit
Till I get out
This mother fucker . me
A chamber full of misfits
I'm worried about being able to handle the difficulties of jail until I get out, which is full of difficult people to be around
Three . and a cot
Some hard ass bitch gets
The county's a bitch, boy
That's paranoid as a nigga get
Slap the living shit
Out of a nigga for a cigarette
Jail life is difficult and unfair, and people get violent over small things
They got me off the street
Although my life was very fucked up
For jacking for cars
Now I'm jacking for commissary
I got caught stealing cars and am now stealing from the jail's commissary
No time to play bully in the county
Ain't no stars, nigga
Trying to squeeze your head
Through the motha fuckin bars
Bitch take the shoes off your feet
Or even worth it trying to hang you
With the motha fuckin bed sheets
Sleep with your eyes open
If you want to see daylight
Cause when I get out this bitch
I'm damn sure go'n go right
Cause coming up on the street
Is what my life was all about
But how can I come up,
From the inside looking out?
Inside looking out.
Jail is dangerous, and there's no room for bullying. I must stay vigilant and survive until I can get out and return to my life on the streets.
Contributed by Wyatt F. Suggest a correction in the comments below.