How George Floyd Helped Shape Hip Hop in the 90’s

The Hip Hop community, as well as the rest of the country, has taken the death of George Floyd to heart, but not a lot of people know that George Floyd was a part of Hip Hop in the 90’s. ‘Big Floyd’, as his fans remember him, was a part of the Houston rap group “Screwed Up Click” headed by D.J. Screw.
Screw was a very influential force in the genre of early Hip Hop as he was the inventor of the ‘Chopped and Screwed” production technique. He would take the original audio for a track and slow all of the sounds and vocals down to create a “molasses” effect on the beat. This technique is still used in Hip Hop music today.

One of Floyds most prominent features in Screw’s music is on his 24 minute “Tired of Ballin'” group freestyle. At a little over half way through the track, Floyd comes in with an introduction from Screw and displays his lyrical prowess on the beat with his slower, hard-hitting bars. Floyd complimented Screw’s revolutionary style with his already deep voice and smooth cadence, showing that he played a big role in its evolution. 

I write this article to not place a higher value on Floyd’s life just because he was a rapper. I write this to show that he lived a full life that was ended way too quickly. Lawrence Burney said it perfectly in a Faded article on the same topic. It states, in part, “Outsiders use that person’s life however they need to in order to affirm the space they occupy in their own communities… it’s rare that we take a moment to understand how those individuals contributed to the greater human experience before their lives were taken away.” 

By: Christian Cuciniello