Philly DJs hope power of music will inspire youth vote

Philadelphia election officials are urging the city’s youth to vote next month — and DJs are ready to soundtrack their trips to the polls.

On Tuesday morning, the rapper Latto’s lavish “Big Mama” brought a party to what would have been an otherwise routine morning at Parkway West High School in West Philadelphia.

Affiliates of the nonprofit DJs at the Polls set up outside the school to rally its students — spinning tunes with a bend toward Gen Z ears, of course — as Democratic City Commissioner Omar Sabir encouraged young people to participate in the Nov. 5 election.

“In our lifetime, there will never be another election like this,” Sabir told the crowd of more than 100 students standing behind him.

One of the city’s three elected commissioners, Sabir and his office are responsible for administering the city’s elections and registering Philadelphians to vote at its more than 700 polling places.

With a lion’s share of residents registered as Democrats, Philadelphia is not considered a battleground in purple Pennsylvania. But to comfortably win the state — and reap its crucial electoral college advantage — Democrats will need to drum up high voter turnout in urban areas.

Sabir’s office said its engagement efforts are nonpartisan. The commissioner reminded the public Tuesday that city commissioners had opened 11 satellite locations this election season, where residents can register to vote and apply for mail-in and absentee ballots, among other services.

His stop at Parkway West, a magnet school in the Mill Creek neighborhood, was the first in a series of planned visits to local schools in the coming weeks with the help of DJs at the Polls, an official partner of the City Commissioners office.

Sabir has a goal of getting 100,000 Philadelphians to engage with his office’s satellite locations by the middle of October, he said; the commissioner also reminded students ages 17 and older they were eligible to volunteer to become poll workers.

It’s not the first time that the power of grooves has livened up a tense election cycle.

Four years ago, Philadelphians cha-cha’d their way to viral status when a video of voters dancing to a DJ Slide track while waiting in line to cast their ballots circulated social media.

Anton Moore, leader of Philadelphia’s 48th ward and cofounder of DJs at the Polls, said his nonprofit has recruited more than 300 DJs to play outside of the city’s polling places on Nov. 5. Moore is also a former member of the hip-hop radio station Power 99 FM.

Moore helped start the nonprofit in 2008, when DJ the Polls had just several DJs and its first location at a polling place on 23rd Street and Snyder Avenue.

This election cycle, DJs at the Polls has spread to 11 states and at 8,500 polling locations, according to Moore. In compliance with local election guidelines, the nonprofit’s DJs will set up on sidewalks at the legal distance from the polling place, he added.

“The vibe is good, people get excited,” Moore said of a DJ’s effect on Election Day. “We want to make this for younger people, older adults. To say, ‘You can have a good time and enjoy yourself.’”

The nonprofit has gotten creative in its marketing this election cycle, offering giveaways and social media campaigns to drive interest in voter registration.

Speaking to Parkway West students Tuesday, for example, Moore urged students to text their parents a message reminding them to vote in November; many students didn’t have their phones due to a school policy, but those who did were asked to send a screenshot of their message to the nonprofit for a chance to win tickets to singer and rapper Rod Wave’s forthcoming concert.

Students at the Middle Years Alternative School, located at Parkway West, were also in attendance Tuesday; though the fifth to eighth-graders aren’t of voting age, some held hand-drawn signs with enthusiastic messages like “Your vote matters” and “Women won it.”

Middle Years Alternative Principal Toni Damon told students that voting this year wasn’t just about representation, but about actively standing against voter suppression.

In a pitch to students who may not prefer either presidential candidate, Damon added that their vote was not a “love letter” to any one politician but rather a “stand for the world you want to live in tomorrow.”

“You are influencers for the style, the music of today,” Damon told her students. “You can influence this election.”