The year after the attacks of Sept. 11 was a dark time for Osama Soliman; an Egyptian-born cabbie, he found himself overwhelmed by the silence in his taxi. Some passengers eyed him suspiciously, and one reported him to the F.B.I. because of his first name. “Every time I went to go get the cab,” he recalled, “I was feeling sad.”
So Mr. Soliman, who arrived in New York in 1998, and began driving a taxi two years later, spent an enormous amount of time listening to music in his empty apartment in Astoria, Queens, hoping it would help him through a dark time. One song that cheered him was “Pretend” (“Pretend you’re happy when you’re blue. It isn’t very hard to do.”), by Nat King Cole, his favorite singer, and in the months following the attacks, Mr. Soliman came to the conclusion that it might also cheer others.
“The music was like an oil to start the engine,” said the driver, who is 33 and single and this day wore a preppy-looking white sweater, his black hair gelled back from his forehead. “The music was breaking the ice with people.”
In spring 2002, he loaded his MP3 player with more than a thousand peppy pop songs, the artists ranging chronologically from Frank Sinatra to 50 Cent, and connected it to his car radio.
He hung a laminated, six-page spiral-bound playlist on a string that dangles in the passenger section, behind the Plexiglas partition.
If Mr. Soliman sees passengers flipping through the playlist, he will urge them to select a song, although sometimes they will ask him to make a selection that fits the mood.
Once Mr. Soliman picked up a woman who had just been evicted from her apartment on Bleecker Street. As the driver played Nat King Cole’s version of “Smile,” she told him she was on her way to chemotherapy.
When Mr. Soliman played a nursery rhyme for a woman and her baby, she gave him $20 for a $5 fare. Indeed, he says, his tips have gone up by 30 percent since he started incorporating music into his rides. But the last page of his playlist insists: “I don’t sell or charge anything but a sincere smile! So be ready to pay!”
Although not every passenger wants the cab turned into a listening booth, Mr. Soliman has seen the music soften some hardened New York hearts.
“Usually when I’m in a cab,” said Terry Williams, the president of a public relations firm, who recalls listening to Aretha Franklin in Mr. Soliman’s cab, “I’m working and thinking about the next thing. For me to stop what I’m doing is a rare thing.”
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
howard 03.15.10 at 5:05 pm
i would not report this nice and friendly guy
Jose 03.15.10 at 7:50 pm
I demand to the new TLC chairman to take off that TV from our cabs and if not at least to silent it. If They do not like us to use our phones,what the hell We have to support that TV on and on and on…….That is the first distraction that have to be fight it. No excuses. Silence that TV! The passenger still can get all the information He/She wants but mude, please!!! Let’s see if Yaski has the head over his shoulders or, what could be worse, the brain in his ass….Let’s wait and see….Jose
Charles T 03.16.10 at 3:36 am
Jose please do not write illiterate. You make us cabbies look like dummies!
Spell check what you have to write. Mude the TV? How bout MUTE it? Spell the Chairmans name right. It’s not Yaski. You have your brain in your ass. The new TLC Chairman did’nt start yet and you are belittling him. His first task should be to suspend your license!!!!!!.
Joe Singh 03.16.10 at 3:44 am
Osama great stuff but you are breaking TLC rules. The old and current rule, “No electronic device hooked up to you taxi”. You have the MP3 player hooked up to the radio. The new rule also forbids electronic devices.Be careful my brother, don’t get caught.
Salaam
CreditCardCabbie 03.16.10 at 8:34 pm
To Drivers! You’ll have the best and safe days, when you listen to classical music on WQXR 105.9 FM! Listen to good radio programs, do not distract yourself with any other electronic gadgets!
Jose 03.16.10 at 9:20 pm
I hope He suspends yours, Charlie. I say what I think like it or not to You or the new chairman. If U do not feel free to talk or express yourself, the STFU!!! but let me express my own way You coward!!!!
Charles T 03.17.10 at 12:02 am
Jose. Can’t you tell which comments I wrote and which comments you wrote yourself? The froth, frenzy and hissy fit is not me.
Jose 03.17.10 at 11:38 am
Charlie, when I write a comment i sign my name. Period. True. I did ever write a comment and sign it Charles. NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! JOSE
yellow 03.17.10 at 11:56 am
Credit card cabbie: that music is just b.s. is that what You like? how old are You? when is the last time You had sex? with a man or a woman? are You for real listening to clasic music? Goddammit!!!!!!!!!!!
Charles T 03.17.10 at 7:15 pm
Be honest. Has the Alliance or any group of cab drivers or private drivers ever been able to get the TLC to back off on any proposal? Just name 1, or name 2.
I’m hoping they were successful, but I fear they were not successful.
Charles T 03.17.10 at 7:18 pm
If the Alliance cannot determine which TLC actions are criminal and then bring those to the Manhattan District Attorney, well, the Alliance will never be able to achieve much.
CreditCardCabbie 03.17.10 at 7:33 pm
To ‘yellow’ – Don’t be angered cabbie! Ease your job with smooth classical music, you will get better tips, and your customers will turn off the annoying cab-TV. It’s works! That’s why I recommended to fellow cabdrivers!
Charles T 03.17.10 at 7:47 pm
How many NYC bus drivers get tickets? Do they have a good lobby organization?
Jose 03.18.10 at 7:25 pm
Charlie, the bus drivers have a good and looks like a quite powerful Union called the Transport workers Union or TWU. The majority of cab drivers should be joining what is already a Union called the Taxi Workers Alliance and if four or five thousand more wuould join the Union would be stronger than is today. No just writing here without name like U We are going to fight for our rights. Wake up, brother(I do not know really if I can call U a broher) Jose
Charles T 03.19.10 at 3:23 am
Jose. Are you sure you are not running two Black Cabs on the side? Ha ha ha.
Feel free to take any of my suggestions, make them your own, and pass them around. You have to be careful of unions.
Like the government inspectors of say Grumman Aircraft or Lockheed Aircraft, the government inspectors become closer to the aircraft companies they are supposed to inspect, and upon government retirement get PLUM jobs with the aircraft companies, or appointed to their boards.
The union, which would work with TLC everyday, MIGHT become CLOSER to the TLC than to the 56,000 cabbies. It is a dangerous business. Strikes don’t help anything, but the Manhattan District Attorney might help with the criminal activities.