1982 New Musical Express 25 Sept. 38 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).

1985 Internat. Musician June 9/4 I know that walking down main street with an oboe in hand does nothing for the street cred.

1992 S. Berkoff Coriolanus in Deutschland 13 Unlike the grand main theatre, this is the ‘studio’, hence a display of ‘graffiti’ on the outside wall,..obviously commissioned to show street cred where there is none.

2001 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Aug. 145/1 If you're going to be in the P.R. business, you need more street cred... So..he's adopted an accent that's more lower-class.

1979 Sounds 18 Aug. 26/3 Chris passes the old street-cred, local-lad-makes-good doodah with flying colours.

1984 Guardian (Nexis) 25 July It's almost a street-cred status thing to have a miner staying at your place.

1990 Times Educ. Suppl. 12 Oct. 6/3 This has led DAIS to take on a street-cred image. Brighton clubs have beer-mats emblazoned with their phone number.

2003 Daily Tel. 6 Aug. 15/4 The astonishing transformation of Clarks from sensible children's brand to street-cred footwear.