"Izz" (Mizzother) in 1982!; Kathleen Miller on "Izzle" (Sept. 2004)

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Sun, May 29, 2005 at 12:55:27AM -0400, bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
> GETTING UP:
> SUBWAY GRAFFITI IN NEW YORK
> by Craig Castleman
> Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
> 1982

Interesting stuff in this, thanks for summarizing.

The earliest I've seen for the _iz_ infixing is a 1972 glossary of
New York drug slang; I like this additional pre-rap cite.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED