3 Chicago Police Officers Work on an Unusual Beat

They’re the “Slick Boys”--part rap musicians, part hoops junkies and full-fledged cops patrolling a crime-ridden public housing project.

Officers Eric Davis, Randy Holcomb and James Martin use rap music to develop rapport with neighborhood residents.

Having grown up in Chicago’s projects themselves, the three are working to keep youngsters at the Cabrini-Green housing project in school and away from gangs.

“We talk about the same things everyone else is talking about, but we put it in their language,” said Davis. “Slick boys,” he noted, is neighborhood slang for undercover police.

Their music teaches.

Take the song, “Ain’t It A Shame (Caught Up in the Gang Game).”

“You started off at the age of 5,” go the lyrics. “You were cockin’ your hat cause you thought you were live. But you’re too young--to start thinking about carrying guns.”

Over the years, guns and crime have been commonplace at the Cabrini-Green project, a complex of 23 high-rises and 60 row houses on the city’s North Side. A security crackdown in the project began in October after a sniper in an apartment shot and killed a 7-year-old boy walking to school with his mother. Davis, Holcomb and Martin started rapping more than a year ago on a dare from teen-agers who were playing an anti-cop song. The policemen criticized it, and the youths challenged them to come up with something better.

Forty songs later, the trio plans a video. They’ve sold 5,000 cassette tapes and donated the proceeds to buy school supplies and food for the needy. They have performed in Los Angeles and New York.

But the three plan to remain on the beat in Cabrini-Green.

“Just giving money or just having your face up on a poster just isn’t enough,” Davis said. “It’s got to be hands on.”

The group periodically takes its message to city high schools.

“It’s very important for the kids to see policemen in a positive light,” said Marshall Taylor, principal at Schiller School. “They’re just as cool off stage as they are on.”

Cabrini-Green children enjoy the Slick Boys.

“It’s OK!” 17-year-old Tricy Hundson said enthusiastically. “It’s positive if the people listen.”

“Them as policemen? Superb. Them as rappers? Nah. But my daughter loves them,” said resident Jacqueline Johnson, whose daughter is 11.

The officers have no trouble cracking down on criminals who also might be fans.

“They know when I start work at 6 o’clock, if I catch them doing anything wrong, I’m going to lock them up,” Martin said. “They know it’s not personal.”

Davis said he and Martin also keep neighborhood youths out of trouble during their off-hours by challenging them in two-on-two basketball games.