Comments

1
I once said to someone on the back of the bus that not everyone wanted to hear their music. It actually worked and they shut it off. Be sassy, get results.
2
Does one specifically have to have a UE Megaboom speaker to be cool?

I've seen more people walking around lately with bluetooth speakers blasting jams, but I haven't paid attention to brands/models/etc.
3
Doubt if anyone doing that noise-blasting in open carry states.
4
And btw, if you want an example of why many people prefer driving their own car, there ya go.
5
no. no no it's neither novel or bearable.. if you want to be either or both, rock you some stravinsky or coltrane ..but jeezy on the #8 ? we used to call THAT shit 'wack'. i still do.
6
trololo...
7
CM, you show me an entertaining slice of life from which I'm happily shielded.
9
Celebrate it as KCM loses their choice riders. That wont end well. I'm not signing up to get stuck on the 8 in traffic with losers who aren't house broken. I love that uber for 2 is always better, and usually cheaper, than riding king County metro.
10
I think if you're riding a bus in Ballard, it should be a city ordinance that you can only openly crank traditional Nordic folk music.
11
What's almost as annoying is people wearing ear buds with the volume boosted so loud they can be sitting in the last seat on the bus and you can still hear whatever shit they are listening to anywhere in the bus. They probably need it that loud since they've already destroyed their hearing previously.
12
This is why people drive.
13
This is as bad as manspreading, not sure why the stranger wont call it out.
14
#ghettomannersmatter

15
Doesn't 'novel' mean original?
16
How would you have felt about it if it had been a song you hated?
17
No. It's not novel. It's not new. It's simply annoying and rude. Ask someone politely to please put their headphones in or turn it off.
18
In all seriousness, this sort of activity is in violation of Metro's Code of Conduct. The question to me is what to do about it.

Normally, I'm too preoccupied and my ride is too short to want to do anything myself for my own sake. And even if I felt I had a right to be bothered, complaining to the bus driver does NOT strike me as the appropriate response. So then what? Is it appropriate to call the Transit Police? I do see a non-emergency number. Not that I'd be motivated enough to make that call myself, although I probably should.
19
The hell they are, especially if you're the driver.
20
@18, When in doubt, call the Transit Police. The bus driver is too busy trying to safely navigate the route to be disciplining passengers for violating the "Use headphones" part of the "common-sense guidelines" section of the code of conduct. That's the job of the transit police.
21
Tell the driver. They tell dickheads to knock that shit off all the time. Even unprompted.
23
Mudede rights an article earlier in the day, complaining about cars and boo-hooing that nobody will take the bus.

Then (master of irony, or totally clueless?) celebrates some fucking douche bag that wants to boost 2 Chainz & Nicki Minaj.

These lyrics alone will explain the car-infatuation of those who can make enough money to escape the bus trash.

"I Luv Dem Strippers"

Let's play big bank take little bank
You are looking at a shark in a fish tank
When I'm in the kitchen, I make plenty cash
Tell shawty come here, she got plenty ass

[Hook: 2 Chainz]
Yeah, I love them strippers
Yeah, I love them strippers
Yeah, I love them strippers
Yeah, I love them strippers
In my foreign car, got the trunk by the engine
So when I back back, I'm fronting on you niggas

[Verse 1: 2 Chainz]
First I back back, Louie backpack
Where's Paris Hilton? Where's Kat Stacks?
I'm Rambo with this ammunition, my camo come from Tru Religion
Them broke hoes can't pay attention, your cutie missing, New Edition
Mr. Telephone man, there's something wrong with my line
When I call my baby's number, I get a click every time
Every line is dope, you can snort it
Working in the pot, I can make you do aerobics
I'm haterphobic, they mad cause I'm winning
They busy high and catching, mad cause I'm pinching
All my bitches different, all my diamonds glistening
My weed so loud, everybody listen
They say it's for the birds, so I bought a kilo
My Boost Mobile chirping, it must be my amigo

[Hook]

[Verse 2: Nicki Minaj]
2 Chainz, you fucking crazy, motherfuckers know I'm fucking crazy
Fuck wrong with these bitches lately?
Bitches better get on they knees and praise me
Bitch, I rep that rich gang, Where's Stunna? Where's Wayne?
That's red on my wristband, SB, Mack Maine
Tell Tyga, lookin' for this bitch called Blac Chyna
Take a nigga bitch in a hot flash, menopause hot flash
Yes that's why I'm crowned queen, and I ain't lookin' for the prom king
These hoes' careers ain't promising, killing these bitches -- crime scene
Oooh that's how a bitch do it
Fifty black trucks gonna follow when I pull up
This shit hit you in the chin like a pull up
My door so cocky, my door so stuck up
Oooh hop up out the space car
Bitches stay pressed, I call them a space bar
Man I wish a bitch would, hundred-thousand dollar engine, I wish a bitch could

24
My immediate thought was, "I hate that shit. It's the noise equivalent of manspreading". Glad to see another commenter came to the same conclusion. Everyone knows it's against the rules and common courtesy, but way too many people think that rules don't apply to them.
25
One step worse from this sort of obnoxious behavior is Mr. Muede celebrating this obnoxious behavior.
26
I love it when people play their music on metro! Maybe my first choice wouldn't be jeezy songs from 2007 but ey.
27
And nobody had the nuts to tell the sociopath to turn off his ghettoblaster 5000. Seattle? Seattle.
28
Sound Transit's website has very clear rules for riding posted on their website, which includes "Use audio/video equipment only with headphones." I'm pretty sure I've seen these posted in buses as well.

http://www.soundtransit.org/Rider-Guide/…

Dear Stranger editorial staff: please stop squandering opportunities to reach your readers by permitting troll bait like this. Sure it drives comments and clicks, but it's not helping anyone and is actively damaging journalism as a trustworthy source for information. Rather than inciting readers to argue on the internet, why not figure out ways to encourage readers to challenge shit behavior when they see it?
29
I was on a bus not long ago where another passenger decided to be the music police. He ended up looking like a douche and the poor guy playing his music (it was "Queen") was clearly not in his right mind. The ad hoc music police passenger then went on to insult the age of the music playing passenger - it was ugly.
30
I just got a album of Lawrence Welk Polkas. Should I blast that on the bus?
31
@30, I'm sure Charles would find that as charming as a song about extravagant wealth being tossed around for exotic cars and strippers. Surely this phenomenon is socially acceptable, even to the extremes of songs about violence against women, beating white people, and a sprinkle of white power punk. Public institutions have to accept all forms of public expression equally.
32
Not sure blasting music on the bus is in novel, really -- I've seen it on every bus, in every city... Somewhat more novel was the guy I saw on the E Line a year or so ago, playing beats on his phone and freestyling about what was happening on and around the bus. That was even enjoyable (it could be enjoyed, that is, by a listener capable of enjoying things). It helped that he was good. But what is a less talented soul to do, rolling past the rat poison-laden flower beds of South Lake Union on the 8 (perhaps -- it's a long route)? Survey Says, "Sit down and shut up"? A lifetime of gritting teeth on the bus, then erupting in Ye Olde Comments Section will eventually leave your nerves exposed, especially if you drink too much coffee: ask your dentist.
33
@3: Oh C&D. Washington is an open carry state.
Nice try though.
34
In a packed morning commuter bus from West Seattle, even too-loud conversations generate a tangible feeling of quiet, seething rage from the bus full of people desperate for a moment of uncomfortable peace before their long, wage slaving days but too passive to actually tell them to shut. the fuck. up.
35
Unfortunately, incivility in public amenities -- from schools, to buses, to housing, to parks, to libraries -- disproportionately effects the poor, working class who can't escape to private schools, private transport, private housing, private recreation, and private entertainment.

A truly caring government would give a Singapore-worthy hammering to this guy.

In the absence of that, those of us who don't have to put up with it, won't have to put up with it.

The policies and practices of government are what you should be questioning. Not who uses Uber – but why its so popular.
36
Proper procedure in this kind of CoC violation is to inform the driver, and let the driver call the Transit Police. They can do so more easily and effectively than you can. Sadly, it also likely results in extra paperwork for the driver, leading to a reluctance on their part.

Calling the Transit Police yourself works, but they'll meet you later down the line (driver safety is taken more seriously than passenger safety, sadly) and hope the offender already got off the bus (so they don't have to do the paperwork either).
37
No, Charles, this kind of behavior is not novel and it is not bearable, it's entitled and douchey. People with more disposable funds than usable brain cells have been doing this since the dawn of the portable radio era many, many years ago. Maybe you don't ride public transit enough to know that. If the rider was getting such a nearly sexual thrill out of it, I wonder why he didn't haul out and start beating off right there. Would that have been novel and bearable, too? Any asshole can ignore social norms; there's no special talent involved and no special merit results.
38
@30......Catalina, I actually enjoy polkas. You should try dancing one sometime, they're really lively. I'd be happy to be your partner.
39
@3 Washington is an open carry state.
40
@39: As I told him up thread.
He'll dismiss me, but probably not you. He's the sort that needs his information stamped with the Good Housekeeping Penis of Approval. :)
41
I would generally considered this sort of thing a nuisance - not really my music, and while all great moments involve the violation of social norms, merely violating norms doe not intrinsically produce the hoped-for transcendence. But the cranky tone of the comments here sort of wins me over to this guy's side. If this kind of thing produces this level of consternation, then we're already fossils, walking around long after our extinction date. It feels like being trapped in one of Bob Dole's Viagra commercials.

Catalina's post, as always, made me laugh.
42
@40 I wish I would'a read all the comments before posting—now I'm gotta spend all of Sunday scrubbing the ink off again.

@30 I'd welcome your polka jams to at least elevate the typical bus experience from annoying to sweetly absurd.
44
#sponsoredcontent
45
@41 - Should read "...consider this sort of thing a nuisance - not really my music, and while all great moments involve the violation of social norms, merely violating norms does not..."
46
Yeah, how is this novel? Because he's using slightly different speaker technology?
47
@28: Is this your first time reading a Charles Mudede piece? Welcome to Slog, hope you like it, Charles is a troll, and one of the best writers.

@30: YES
48
Anyone who plays their personal sound device in public loud enough that others have to hear it is an asshole. No exceptions.
49
Hmmm... I feel like this was made just to see what the comment section had to say, because honestly, who really cares to hear anyone's poor choice of music? At least on the radio we have the option of flipping through and listening to what shit we want to listen to, the added bonus of getting off a long shift and listening to someone blast their young jeezy just doesn't add to anyone's already annoying transit experience. Let's work on our transportation system first then decide if it's okay to have very single person listen to their own music choice loudly in their seat.
50
I was on a bus not long ago where another passenger decided to be the music police. He ended up looking like a douche and the poor guy playing his music (it was "Queen") was clearly not in his right mind. The ad hoc music police passenger then went on to insult the age of the music playing passenger - it was ugly.
51
Dumb people have a habit of excusing anything someone they see as a part of their "in-group" does.

If this was a white guy blasting country music, Mudede would have interpreted the situation as a representation of everything wrong with capitalism and race in this country.

But it is a black guy blasting hip-hop, so it is totally fine, and even a good thing.
52
@51.....You've got that right, I wonder how Mr. Mudede would react to a pretty white woman who was playing a Christian sermon along with gospel music, or perhaps a recording of a diabetics sermon.
53
@52..Sorry that diabetics should have read dianetics. Spell checker acted to soon.

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