Nope, urbane means polite, polished. Urban is of the city, etc. I do words, sorry; one my favourite books growing up was the two-volume, each 4 inches thick, dictionary. 'Course ya can't tell it from my typing.*grin*

Caitrin, it sure is interesting to hear from a young'un on this.

I found a site of supposedly public domain rap lyrics. While there were many which used expletives up the kazoo and many whihc had violence, they were ALL expressing anger at how awful life is for them in the ghettoes. It seems the only way they can get their rage out. I'd rather they sing it than act it.

One I found, Buddha Monk, had a lot of lyrics wiht anger and killing mentioned, but they moslty were telling people to stop killing each other. Among those, he had a real gem, part of which follows, just to show that it is NOT all about violence and hatred:

Buddha Mon, from the album The Prophecy, song titled Dedicated:

I was only nine years old, when daddy left me
Poppa was always up to no good
This one here is dedicated to a very special lady in my life
She's my M-O-M-M-Y, she's a very special woman
and dear mom, I dedicate this song to you

[Chorus x2:

This goes out to a special lady
The one that brought me life
The one that taught me right
She always held me tight

Kat here, again, After reading a lot of the lyrics, I have decided that rap definitely can qualify as folk. It is like a protest song, ratcheted up quite a bit and without the niceties of flower, peace, and love, because these kids don't have any of those, nor the luxury of contemplating a world with those things. And, as this appeals to sub-yuppie children, too, I have to conclude there are a LOT of young people, in general, who feel pretty hopeless and disenfranchised these days, with no support or direction from the adults as a societal whole. I am not saying this excuses any of the violence, nor do I exonerate video games and tv; actiually I would say that rap expresses the result of too much of both of those and the neglect of children in our culture as a whole.

I will be starting what I consider to be a relevant thread about the Southern Initiative which is pushing for display of the Confederate flag. In a time when we are supposed to be progressing, maybe these kids wonder how in the hell that can happen with adults with agendas like the ones I found at the SI website.

katfeelingpretyopinionatedtoday