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As a writer, Tone Love has always been concerned with the message. Recently, he put his rhymes to work in spreading the word about keeping the city clean.
“I was emceeing for a band and the band was being contacted by the mayor to do the sound — they were promoting the UnLitter [Us] campaign,” Love, who hails from 15th and Dickinson streets, said. “The band was Jazz Guardian. I was just listening; they were providing the music. The campaign message, what it was about, and just being a writer and rapper I thought I could lend a little of my talent to the campaign. I definitely believe in the city and taking pride in it and people taking pride in where they live.”
Love, a member of Tuff Crew, which is regarded as one of Philadelphia’s first rap groups, was part of the citywide greening campaign launch. The UnLitter Us initiative, spearheaded by the Philadelphia Streets Department, included a South Philly rally Oct. 15 at which Love performed the song “Come Clean, Go Green” that he wrote for the movement.
“During the endeavor, seeing the mayor speak about it, I wanted to do my part to get it promoted. I was actually freestyling a lot of different points out there with the band and I told the commissioner of the Streets Department [Clarena I.W. Tolson, a native of 26th and Federal streets,] I could put together a song to promote the key elements of the campaign,” the 44-year-old said.
The musician, who will continue to perform at upcoming rallies for the campaign, hopes that the lyrics will help people “embrace the song as a theme song for the movement,” he said.
“It comes up in different things or people that were relevant and relative to the campaign like gas, traffic, pollution, the recycle rewards to get people involved with the recycling. I just tried to implement the points into the song.”
Love said Mayor Michael Nutter and the Streets Department really enjoyed what he came up with. He is happy to stay a part of the campaign and spread this message, along with other positive ideas he pushes in his professional recordings.
[In the suburbs,] everyone played a part in keeping the neighborhood clean and if we can get enough people to embrace the cause, not only cleaning trash, but to try to clean our act, it will spill into other areas, too,” Love, who wrote the campaign song in three days, said. “Addressing things like violence and crime, it will crossover into that sort of stuff. It’s not primarily focused on the trash removal and maintenance — just cleaning up our act and getting ourselves situated economically to look within to find the innate talent we have.”
Love attended South Philly High School, 2101 S. Broad St., before finishing up his schooling at Germantown High. Today, his mother, Bobbi Love, and grandmother, Evelyn Estes, still live in the neighborhood where he spent his years in as a youth.
“I got involved with Tuff Crew after high school. I did a lot of music with them,” Love, who now lives in Montgomery County, said. “About three years after high school we had a lot of success and we recently got back together.”
Going separate ways in the early 1990s to pursue other projects, Tuff Crew recently began working on a new release that they hope to put out early next year.
“It’s going to be a throwback to original hip-hop style, with old local artists. It’s pretty much a throwback for the fans. We sold 7.5 million records and we’re still selling them. Fans have been asking us to give them unreleased as well as new music,” he said.
While working on the new release with Tuff Crew, Love also has been involved since earlier this year with the group F.A.M.L.E.E, which stands for fresh alternative music, listen, enjoy the music, embrace the message.
“The F.A.M.L.E.E project is R&B and rap. The message behind that project is to see people as family,” Love said, adding that the group is branching into other genres to explore its sound. “Right now, there are so many different messages being spread and [we look to] provide inspiration and for injecting hope into some young people.”
The group’s mission is paralleled by Love’s other endeavors, which included a break from music but not one from spreading positive words.
“I took some time away and went into schools, high schools, teaching character education,” Love said. “We would go into the classrooms and have a seminar on character education, like developing social skills, character skills, conflict resolution and promoting self esteem.”
His teaching work was made possible by the nonprofit People to People, who were exposed to Love’s messages through the music and afforded him this opportunity. Whether it be through music or mentoring — though Love finds it hard to draw a distinction between these two — his message to youth is: “Believe in yourself and shine.”
Now that he has become a part of the UnLitter Us campaign, Love is focused on promoting that gospel, as well. In fact, his involvement has had an impact on his immediate family.
“I definitely encourage my children [to think about keeping their city clean],” Love said of Christian, 8, Sabriya, 16, and Vevin, 21. “They are inspired with my involvement in the campaign and it has opened their eyes to being mindful about not littering.”
For Love, who has his hand in many projects at the moment, being able to encourage his community to take pride in its city has been more rewarding than he could have imagined.
“It’s been inspiring for me just to see how many people are responding to the cleanup initiative,” he said. “It is appealing to learn through rap. We learn a lot through songs and I thought that I could, myself, get people going real good.” SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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