While outrage at daggerin' songs in electronic media has largely been centred at safeguarding the interests of children, sometimes it's adults who are hollering for rescue from kids.

Just days after the police Traffic Division warned of a major assault on the playing of music by public-transport operators, busmen and cabbies were still willing to ride their luck.

When this Gleaner reporter travelled on several buses in the Corporate Area last Friday, drivers popped in CDs laden with daggerin' lyrics - X-rated songs promoting dance simulation of sex.

On one bus, a group of uniform-clad schoolgirls issued instructions to the driver about their preferred playlist.

He gladly obliged.

As gangsta music blared, the bus was transformed into an impromptu dancehall session as the schoolgirls let out whoops of joy. Then he upped the vibe with daggerin' songs.

Protest by passenger

There were no voices of dissent until one particularly graphic song - Aidonia's Hundred Stab - seemed to grate the nerves of a passenger. The woman who was sitting in the back of the bus with a child insisted that the driver move to a different beat. Ironically, it was the schoolgirls beside him who played the role of selector.

"A true lady!" the driver shouted.

"Mi tell di bwoy before him make di chune nuffi put nuh bad word in deh eenuh. What a wicked artiste, man!" he said with a smirk before turning the music back on.

"A Christian music yuh fi play!" the woman yelled from the back in response to the driver's defiance.

"A true, man! Ductor, weh di gospel CD weh yuh buy deh?" the driver joked.

He then skipped the track to another less graphic daggerin' song, simultaneously bucking the volume to drown further dissent.

Doubts about crackdown

Mark Richards, a security guard, who works in full view of the major bus terminals in Half-Way Tree, told The Gleaner that he is not convinced that the ban on playing music on public buses and taxicabs will work unless the police take charge.

"You haffi go get a policeman fi pursue the bus them and take the CD dem, or take out the music," he said. "People a say stop play but dem continue, and yuh know this type a hooligan conducta weh we have, and even drivers, dem do whatever dem feel like, them play whatever dem feel."