Where do you live in D.C. #12

Where do we live in D.C.?

It turns out that we live in the DMV.  No, not the dreaded Department of Motor Vehicles.

Shortly after starting Year 3 here in D.C., we saw a reference to the DMV.  It turns out that the DMV is a popular nickname that means the District, Maryland and Virginia, in other words, the D.C. metropolitan area, home to more than 6 million people.  Who knew?

DMV mural on P St., NW (between 15th and 16th Sts.) (11/11/2018)

The origin of the name goes back more than two decades.  According to an article in the Washingtonian magazine, the urban legend is that the term DMV was first coined by a D.C. go-go musician named Kibwe Galloway:

"Galloway had been calling the name out for about three years while playing with Brothers Need Brothers (originally called Buck Naked Band). He could also be heard shouting the name out over rap and go-go records he helped produce. Galloway says he was looking for a way to “try to break the little wall” between city dwellers and suburbanites."

   

Local hip-hop artists and promoters embraced and used the term to signify the large hip-hop community in D.C. and beyond its borders in Maryland and Virginia.  Over time, gentrification in D.C. and urbanization outside D.C. has spread hip-hop throughout the region.  The term DMV is a shorthand way to refer to all hip-hop fans wherever they live in the area.  DMV is a lot easier to say than "the Washington metropolitan area."   It's also much cooler.    

Of course, the meaning of the term DMV has expanded beyond hip-hop.  Now, DMV is a generic term for greater Washington applied in sports, weather, news, marketing, advertising, etc.

We thought we were spending Year 3 in Washington, D.C.  In fact, we are living in the DMV.  Who knew?

P.S.  Interested in a DMV shirt?  Click here.

P.P.S.  If you remember the film 8 Mile, the story about the term DMV might seem familiar.  In 8 Mile, the finale features rapper Eminem referring to greater Detroit by the telephone area code, 313.  Click here to listen.