Based on the above discussions, perhaps only the passage of time will tell whether or no Rap deserves to be labelled as folk. However it shakes out, Rap has redeeming social value - in the minds of some not as a musical genre, but that reflects personal opinion only - as a window to a world to which most of us aren't privy, or probably wouldn't want to be. It portends to be representative and reflective of a section of our population that feels disenfranchised and alienated from the umbrella of opportunities and benefits usually bestowed on the "acceptable" members of our society: the young urban black American male. It seems as though the large metropolitan areas located on the fringes of the U.S.(specifically New York City and Los Angeles) are at the forefront of styles and fashions (or actions) that eventually spread into every small town nook and cranny of this country. What those cities manifest, for better or worse, is a harbinger of things to come in Anytown, U.S.A. The glimpses of the future they provide can sometimes be harrowing. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking.

Neil Lowe