street cred (adj. 1979, n. 1982)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Latest OED batch has "street cred" from 1984 as an adjective and from
1985 as a noun. Here's earlier for both:

adj.:
1979 _Sounds_ 18 Aug. (Rock's Back Pages) And though one might
reasonably question the cockney quotient of say Hudson-Ford and other
post-Dury dropped-hatch money-spinners, Chris passes the old
street-cred, local-lad-maked-good doodah with flying colours.

n.:
1982 _NME_ 25 Sep. (Rock's Back Pages)  Richard Butler used to spit
out ditties about his old flames with all the vitriol of Rotten
attacking the establishment (small 'e' – this was before doing the
same thing while waving an angry fist in the air became a passport to
street cred) and the Furs, with their endless pouting, prancing and
preening, held the unenviable title of glib glam tart upstarts of pop.


--Ben Zimmer

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