front street, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

front street n.

also Front Street

[note the actual Front Street, New York City, once a mercantile centre]

(US black)

1. the main street of a town, the street on which most of the (illegal) action takes place.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

2. in fig. use, the state of being on public display and thus open to attack, whether verbal or physical; a situation in which one must be responsible for one’s words and deeds.

1974		D. Goines Daddy Cool (1997) 90: The elderly man called Bill tried to make himelf smaller in the small crowd. the last thing he wanted was to be put on Front Street.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 190: I’ve got a lot to lose by gettin’ out on front street.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 157: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Beat street. Jump street. Front street. Dope beat. Juke joint.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Your client has you on front street [...] Now the mess is in your lap to clean up.

In phrases

play on front street (v.)

to abandon pretence, to act openly.

1990

S. Morgan Homeboy 21: This one we gotta play on Front Street.

put one’s business on front street (v.) (also play on front street, put on front street, put one’s business on the street, put one’s shit on the street)

1. (US black) to make indiscreet disclosures about oneself or another person.

1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 59: put your busines on the streets: talk too much about personal matters.
1970		Current Sl. V:2 11: Put one’s business on the street, v. To tell one’s secrets.
1972		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Whoreson 249: You still wouldn’t put yourself on front street for that reason.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1988		(con. 1930s) C.E. Lincoln The Avenue, Clayton City (1996) 35: Good Jelly never did like for anybody to put his business in the street.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 32: Front street is an expression used when something is made known to other people or they are allowed to become aware of certain things. [Ibid.] 33: Putting Your Business on the Street Making certain things about yourself known to other inmates. [Ibid.] 93: A person may front someone off by putting him on front street, which is to let other people know what the person is doing.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 180: Did I charge you when you needed a place to stay after Marisol . . .? Motherfucker, don’t let me put your shit in the street.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 18: I ain’t trying to put nobody on front street, but my homeboy, C-Note, was locked up in there.
2008		Simon & Burns ‘–30–’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 10 [TV script] What d’you think? [i.e. of an article] Put my shit in the streets, huh?
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 25: We all knew that it was true but I guess they felt [...] that I did not have to put it out on front street like that.

2. (US black) to trick, to deceive.

1977

(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 214: You realize that you were put on Front Street.

3. (US prison) to confront, to defy.

1992		P. Earley Hot House 235: [B]y personally promising the Cubans that they would get better food, Slack had put his bosses—as they say in prison—’on front street’.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Put on Front Street: Openly defy, as a prisoner will ‘put [a guard] on front street’.