Don't mute dc pioneers
In 2019, Tone P alongside Ronald Moten, Tony Lewis Jr., and professor Natalie Hopkinson co-created and established the Don't Mute DC movement, an organization dedicated to battling Black displacement and cultural erasure in the city of Washington, D.C.. In March 2019, Tone P in a collaboration with Rare Essence, Lightshow, and Noochie released the movement's anthem track “Don't Mute DC”. The movement ignited when a Metro PCS store owner named Donald Campbell played go-go music on speaker outside the store at 7th street Florida Avenue and residents there complained about it to T-Mobile, to which T-Mobile instructed the store owner to bring the music inside on which people started protesting. The movement was cover on BBC, Smithsonian, BET, Washington Post, TV One, and more.
the backstory of #DontMuteDC
Central Communications, a popular local phone store that is regionally known for playing DC's GOGO music outside the storefront on the corner of 7th & Florida Ave in Northwest, D.C. provided customers and the busy intersection with a cultural music experience for more than 25 years. Central Communications started receiving pressure from a new luxury apartment “The Shay” that was recently (at that time) developed directly across the street from Central Communications. New residents, many of which were new in DC, didn't take a liking to the music being played outside so residents started making noise ordinance complaints to the city. The Shay Residents would make more than 20 complaints but Central Communications continuously was cleared for being in range. Resident's would congregate and decide to direct their complaints to the phone stores primary carrier T Mobile. The complaints were successful reaching T Mobile. T Mobile would instruct Don Campbell, the Central Communications owner, to either turn off the music or his contract with Metro PCS via (now Metro by T Mobile) would be terminated indefinitely. The store's majority revenue was generated from his contract with Metro by T Mobile and if terminated, Central Communications would have eventually default.
Prior to the movement being public, this was largely a private matter. Don Campbell had called local DC front runner's Ronald Moten, Tony Lewis Jr, Natalie Hopkinson to advise in the mist of the controversy. Tone P's wife Zanandi at the time was an area manager for Metro PCS and expressed to Tone that Don was being facing some degree of gentrification and Tone could assist given his stature, reputation, and network in Washington, DC. Tone accepted to meet Don and when arriving to Central Communications, Ronald Moten, Tony Lewis Jr., Natalie Hopkinson, were all present in effort to help Don with his dilemma as well. Collectively they would chat and conclude to fight publicly as they believe Don and his store would garner massive support as the store's reputation has a long supportive history in D.C.. Don Campbell still opted to work things out privately, so everyone yielded to Don's decision.
Julien Bloomfield
Creator of the hashtag #dontmutedc - 4.7.19
Shortly after, Don Campbell decided to turn the music off. The same day the music turned off, a Metro by T Mobile customer and Howard University student named Julien Bloomfield noticed the music wasn't playing. Then she noticed a rave party was happening at the same time just one block away from Central Communications during the middle of the day. Julien would record the incident on April 7th, 2019 and share the video in a tweet with the hashtag #DontMuteDC. The tweet displaying the video started gaining significant traction on twitter.
Tone P
ignites movement with Instagram post - 4.7.19
With the incident now being public, Tone P decided that same day to use his platform on Instagram with 45k followers to inform the public of T Mobile's involvement to vocalizing Central Communications was under attack specifically from a major corporation and could lose his store! Tone's verified Instagram account is followed by a large network of local, national, and international influencers. Within 24 hours, the post received over 4k likes and many comments with concern and disappointment. WUSA9, News Chanel 4, Fox 5 and more contacted Tone the next morning regarding the incident. Tone directed everyone to the upcoming Rally that afternoon at 6pm on April 8th, 2019 co-organized by Listen Local First, Kymone Freeman, and Tone P.
Ronald Moten and Natalie Hopkinson would create the #DontMuteDC petition in response to the momentum. Tony Lewis Jr., a national award winning Community Leader who also has a large platform and following. He would post the petition link in his bio which served as the vehicle and launch pad for the petition garnering more than 80K supporters.
Long Live Gogo's Yaddiya would organize a series of protests with various GOGO bands in response to the momentum starting April 9th that would take the movement to new heights.
From here, the rest is history! Enjoy the photos below :-)
