No one knows how many tapes he recorded in his short life-probably more than a thousand-or how many copies are out there. His tapes became an underground sensation, so popular that people would drive hundreds of miles to his Houston home to buy them. He built his career on a strange, brilliant idea: slow down the music, like taking a 45 record and playing it at 33 rpm. He wasnвЂ™t a musician or even a rapper he was a guy behind the turntables mixing other peopleвЂ™s music and raps together. DJ Screw-was one of the most influential musical figures to come out of Texas in the past decade. You may never have heard of him, but Robert Earl Davis, Jr.-a.k.a. He put a lot of life, a lot of spark into a lot of peopleвЂ™s lives.вЂќ Another, named Mike D, said, вЂњI wouldnвЂ™t be the person I am today if it werenвЂ™t for DJ Screw. вЂњHe gave me a skill when I didnвЂ™t have one,вЂќ said DJ Chill. вЂњI said, вЂ DJ Screw, what kind of a name is that?вЂ™ But he made it, and I was so proud of him.вЂќ The deejayвЂ™s rap- music buddies from Houston, where he died, spoke too. вЂњI was one of the first people he told he was going to be named DJ Screw,вЂќ said his first cousin Donald Davis. Some of them talked about the name by which several million people knew him as an adult. Members of his family, who called him Robert Earl, talked about his childhood in Smithville.

Next to the deejayвЂ™s gunmetal-gray coffin at Mount Pilgrim church was a large sign that looked remarkably like a giant $1 million bill, with a picture of the deceased in the center.ДЄ dozen people got up and spoke. Most of them, I thought as I watched them shyly look for places to squeeze into, had never been to Smithville before they probably didnвЂ™t spend much time in church either. They didnвЂ™t sing along much with the hymns. Some had tattoos on their legs, forearms, and necks. Jammed along the walls and in the corners was a much larger crowd of younger people wearing leather jackets, gold chains, new basketball shoes, and extra-large T-shirts. Most of the singing came from his family and the older folks, dressed in their Sunday best and sitting in the center of the packed church, one of those small, tidy, weathered white buildings you see in the country. At the deejayвЂ™s funeral in Smithville, they sang gospel songs.

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