Swishahouse is a Houston, Texas based independent, southern rap record label started by DJ Michael "5000" Watts. Swishahouse started in the late 1990s in north Houston as a response to the popularity of chopped and screwed music from Houston's south side. (Its name comes from a Freestyle rap by former Swishahouse rapper Lil' Mario.) Hip-hop fans on the north side wanted to hear their local artists on slowed-down releases. Swishahouse began distributing popular mixtape series such as The Day Hell Broke Loose and F-Action (which featured chopped and screwed versions of R&B songs). The huge independent sales of their mixtapes led them to create the motto "Major Without A Major Deal". Thanks to the success of 'Still Tippin'" (a song that was originally featured on The Day Hell Broke Loose 2), Swishahouse was able to sign a deal with Asylum Records to gain national distribution. In addition to chopping and screwing Swishahouse's releases, Michael Watts has recently been commissioned to screw and chop several southern rap albums such as the Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz' Crunk Juice, Slim Thug's Already Platinum, Dem Franchize Boyz's On Top Of Our Game, and Lil Wayne's Tha Carter II. Mike Jones became the first Swishahouse artist to release a major label album with Who Is Mike Jones?, which was released in April 2005 and went on to sell over a million copies. Paul Wall's major label debut, The People's Champ, landed at the top of the Billboard charts at the time of its August 2005 release.
