Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (US black) wherever the hedonistic, criminal or night life takes place.

a.1954		‘Bill and Lil’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 121: Ten long years of bitter regret / Won’t stop me busting your ass when I get back on the set.
1958		Milsap Participant Observation Journal in Wallace Skid Row (1965) 32: Say daddy, have you dug the set at the Key club?
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 175: It was where all the slick people were living [...] the set I wanted to be in.
1969		Smith & Gay Heroin in Perspective (1972) 109: He is a person who stays in the block all day and is supposed to know what is going on; he is, as they say, always on the set.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 148: When some good smack is on the set, man.
1985		O. Hawkins Chili 18: 1964, back on the set, back on the job I’d left.
2000		W. W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 625: Some gangstas popped a cap at me [...] That’s life in our set, muttered Chocolate.
2015		email to http://davidsimon.com 9 May 🌐 He even went as far as to drive me to the set so I could cop my dope [and] let me shoot a bag in the back of his patrol car.

(b) (US black) a party, a gathering.

1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 93: Well, you didn’t miss much. What a set! That man Trotter makes me sick.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 59: The set is on the fifth floor and the floor is creaking an’ groaning under the weight of all the coolies that are swinging.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 75: Wasn’t you over to that little set they had over to Sonny Davis’ place.
1987		Ice-T ‘Rhyme Pays’ 🎵 I hope this something that you never forget / Tie that freak outside next time you come in a set.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 175: Where the set at tonight? I need to get loose.

(c) (drugs) a place where drugs are sold.

1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 14: Once the addict has drugs on him, he keeps moving. [...] He strikes out with what some detectives call a ‘leaving-the-set-walk’.
1977		B. Davidson Collura (1978) 75: Space was never stoned ‘on the set’ ( a street drug-buying operation).
1990		M. McAlary Crack War (1991) 32: Fat Cat’s attorney [...] arrived on the set even before police had led his client away.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 19: Set — Place where drugs are sold.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 348: [A] footsoldier... following orders... they’re soft spots... they have to put their head out of the set.

(d) (US black) the neighbourhood.

1967		R. Conot Rivers of Blood 58: Several youths [...] were encamped on the back bumper. [...] ‘Hey you—!’ he yelled at the kids in back. ‘Get off of there!’ [...] ‘Say please, Whitey!’ they taunted him. ‘You on our set now!’.
1972		E. Sanders Family 186: Two policemen [...] were on the set too, investigating Charlie’s rape of the girl.
1999		Dr Dre ‘Some L.A. Shit’ 🎵 But I grew up where niggaz jack you, harass you / Blast you, for that set you claim (where you from?).
2001		Source Aug. 148: Snoop is my nigga from my gang and my set.

(e) a situation or environment.

1971		R.T. Sale Blackstone Rangers 156: ‘Man, like, I thought it was my time. I thought it was over for me. [...] Man, that was a scary set’ .
1996		W.D. Myers Slam! 53: Pops didn’t really make a difference in the set. When it got time to get real he wasn’t making it.
2008		W.D. Myers Game 215: I thought that he [a basketball teammate] would get better chances than me, more attention, but I had learned something more about the set.
2011		W.D. Myers Cruisers 43: In a way I knew that Billy was winning the set because all I could think of was throwing hands. That had to be a loss.
2013		W.D. Myers Darius & Twig 7: When crap came my way, I just pushed back and got by it somehow. It got harder. I had to look out for my brother, and for Mom as well. Then I just wanted to be away from the whole set.

(f) (US police/NYC) the location of a police undercover operation.

2006

(con. 1972) Jurgenson & Cea Circle of Six 95: I heard their radios come alive with transmissions. We got him. [...] Have ESU respond to the set, need extractions in the apartment.