Screwed Up Records & Tapes II

My boyfriend and I were really excited to cross this off our list as DJ Screw and this shop represents such an integral part of Houston music history. Since we both collect records and he collects cassettes as well, we were expecting to leave with a couple purchases. When we arrived, however, it turned out the shop was mostly filled with clothes and cheesy looking merchandise unrelated to DJ Screw or local artists. They don’t sell records or tapes anymore — only CDs. The guys working seemed fairly friendly, pointing us toward a binder filled with track listings for each CD they have. And boy, do they have a lot! They’ve got every single mixtape DJ Screw ever made — well over 300 — and it’s pretty cool reading through and recognizing names, but there’s not much else to do in the shop. Unless you know exactly which one you want to buy, it’s fairly underwhelming. You can’t listen before you buy and it’s hard to tell where to start when there’s so much. We left after milling around for a bit as neither of us were really interested in purchasing CDs. While I understand the difficulty of selling records and tapes now (and the history of the name), it seems like a bit of a misnomer to call a shop records and tapes when they have neither. It’s nice to be able to see a little slice of Houston history, but even that’s a bit contrived since this isn’t the original location.

A real authentic piece of Houston Texas resides in the shop. Houston wrap was put on the map by a hometown DJ who went by the name of Screw. In the rap game this shop is a cornerstone, a true original establishment that helped jumpstart a lot of rap career’s. DJ Screw first opened up for business in 1998, he base of the shop was used to sell actual cassette tapes in then eventually CDs as they became popular. The original location of the shop was closed down and recently reopened a few years ago.
I visited the shop about a year ago when I was in Houston and was told that I MUST GO HERE. Right off the side of a main road in Houston you’ll find Screwed Up Records & Tapes and in a mediocre shop mall development. Inside you’ll see old banners from the original store, many original photos & pictures (some drawn by fans) and the murals of DJ Screw within the shop.
Local Houston artists can be heard through BOOMING bass speakers inside. Even well known State grown artist such as Scarface & UGK have hung sing anther photos in dedication to the shop. The atmosphere inside feels extremely warm, like you’ve walked into a homie’s house and just Vibin’ to the décor. Did I mention the merchandise? Everything from autographed photos of Screw to Chrome spoked-​out wheels all the way back to original Screwed and Chopped tapes mixed by DJ Screw.
A true iconic establishment in Houston, period. Regardless of that fact it’s just a «record shop». Oh yeah, and in the back as an actual recording booth where artists and DJs come to mix, chop, produce and record records.
A shop like this makes you fall back in love with Vinyls, ACTUAL cassettes and CDs.
I’d come back to H-​Town just to go here!
S.U.C.