"Ghetto" now (also) means "jury-rigged"?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 1/9/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>  "Ghetto" has been used a lot in the last few years to mean "tasteless, tacky,
> or otherwise resembling the presumed behavior of crude ghetto dwellers."
> In my limited experience it's used by blacks as well as whites, and especially
> by young women.

I see the negative adjectival usage on Usenet from 1993, though I'm
sure it goes back at least a few years before that...

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http://groups.google.com/group/alt.rap/msg/9d90bb77f16460cc
alt.rap, Sep 28 1993
I guess he thinks readers of Urb and Source are stupider or more
"ghetto" than UCLA students.
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Of course, the adj. "ghetto" has had positive connotations too (long
before "ghetto fabulous")...

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http://groups.google.com/group/alt.rap/msg/4cf3e3faeeadc984
alt.rap, Sep 4 1991
Anyway, they make up for it with this version, stricly ghetto.  In
fact, every song is very ghetto on the album.  By "ghetto", I mean
really brooding with a deep groove.  Mostly minor keys (if it matters
:).
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--Ben Zimmer