Street talk. You can hear it under the Lake Street elevated tracks or at a pay phone at Broadway and Lawrence. You can hear it waiting for a bus at Madison and Kostner. They are not just murmurings, mutterings, or crude epithets spat out by the inarticulate. Often, there is a melody to their sounds, a rhythm to the words.
These words can be so enveloped by bad grammar it makes one wince, but so right on target they make a listener smile. Here are some of them:
Throwing a set: Having a party.
A slim: A girlfriend.
Shake and bake: A drink made of cheap wine and Kool-Aid.
A bit: A short term in prison.
Shortie: A young kid not yet in his teens who hangs around gang members.
Player: Someone who is successful in an illegal activity.
Crib: As in “I’m cribbing at my grandma’s tonight.” It means where you are spending the night, or, in other street parlance, where you “lay your head.”
Running the streets: Someone is “running the streets” when he has no place to eat a sit-down meal and spend the night.
Fulreal: Someone is “fulreal” if he is genuine and without pretensions. An alternative word is “straight up.”
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Five-0: The police. It’s derived from the TV program “Hawaii Five-0.”
Slick: A police officer in plain clothes but not a suit and tie.
Wives-in-law: Two women who live with the same man.
Mac ball: A lavish party once held annually on the West Side by men who operated as pimps. Pimps were also called Macs. Those in attendance competed when it came to the garishness of the clothes and the ostentation of the cars. An award was given for the best pimp of the year.
Players’ ball: A lavish party now held annually on the West Side by men who operate as drug dealers. Ostentation, such as floor-length mink coats worn by the men, is still in order. But the cars are usually BMWs and Mercedes. The drug dealers give awards to one another.
Ride: As in, “He rides with T. Jones.” It means he hangs out with him.
Boys and girls: “Boys” is heroin and “girls” is cocaine.
Semi-squares: People who hold down middle-class jobs but use drugs.
Calling it: Someone is “calling it” when he is giving orders and making the decisions.
Going out backwards: The person has died.