In partnership with Texas Monthly, Michael Hall's 'The Slow Life and Fast Death of DJ Screw' is now available as an audio download, where the length and timeliness of a podcast meets the high-quality production of a full-length audio program.

He was one of the most influential cultural figures in Texas -- a generous godfather to a generation of rappers, an entrepreneur of Houston's mean streets, the master of a scene fueled by codeine cough syrup and hip-hop beats. When he overdosed in November at the age of 29, it was easy to dismiss him as yet another musician who succumbed to his own success. But the story of DJ Screw is more complicated than that.