"Going all city" (graffiti everywhere)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 28 May 2005 00:35:48 -0400, bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

>http://www.barrypopik.com/article/933/going-all-city-graffiti-slang
>...
>The movie BOMB THE SYSTEM about "graffiti artists" opened today in New
>York. It mentions "going all city."

Here's a cite from 1984:

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A crew, according to T-Kid, "is a unit of dudes who work together to
achieve a goal: to get up and to go all city."
_Subway Art_ by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant (1984, reprinted 1997),
p. 50 <http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0805006788/>
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It's probably also mentioned in Craig Castleman's 1982 book _Getting Up:
Subway Graffiti in New York_ (not searchable on Amazon).


--Ben Zimmer