Of course the arguement is going to be made based on the last sentence - that rap is "composed popular music that has been taken over ready-made by a community and remains unchanged", but the true story is that is is music that was made by a community and taken over by popular music.

I just opened Pete Seeger's book "The Incompleat Folksinger" to get his take on the "folk process". He described a statment made by Dr. Duncan Emrich, formerly in charge of the Archive of American Folk Song. Emrich stated that there would soon be no more folk singers, and he based his statement on similar definitions.

But Pete wrote: "What Emrich didn't figure was that new traditions of folk music will emerge, even though the old ones will have faded. All definitions change with the centuries. What is called a "play" nowadays is far different from what was called a "play" in Shakespeare's time. The definition of folk songs and folk singers are liable to change also.

Folks will insist on it.

In the 1960's there was a flood of good new American songs written by young people who are singers and guitar pickedrs, who try out their new songs every week on small, informal audiences. They know right away how their song is being received, and if it needs amending.

Are these songs folk songs? They might fit one definition, but certainly would not fit another. The important thing is: are they good songs? Do they sing well? Is the poetry so good you can't get it out of your head? Are the words true, and do they need saying? Does the music move you?

It's worth pointing out obvious differences between these songs and what we usually call "pop" songs:
1) They're often concerned with controversial subjects.
2) They may be short or long, or ignore the Big Beat and other time-honored jukebox requirements.

On the other hand, I'd guess that most of these songwriters are very glad if their songs make the top forty and are sung by all kinds of singers, as long as the songs are not massacred in the process. Whether or not the songs have this brief flash of lucrative notoriety, some of them are picked up by some of the millions of guitar pickers in our country, and the best will be handed on to future generations.

Then some professor can come along and collect them. He can call 'em folk songs then, if he wants. The dust will not object."

That was published in 1972. I think Pete's definition fits the definition of "folk music" that includes the catagory of "rap". As far as I'm concerned, it says it all.