Become known around town (8)

'become known around town' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'become known around town' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'become' could be 'go' (eg to go rotten is to become rotten) and 'go' is found within the answer.
'known' could be 'out' (as in news which is 'out') and 'out' is located in the answer.
'town' could be 't' (abbreviation for town) and 't' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ab' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?