Accounts of male urban youth within Solomon Islands, like much of Melanesia, frequently tend towards apocryphal depictions of listless, troublesome and disengaged young men. Similar to other post-conflict, developing states, a large and growing cohort of undereducated and underemployed urban males is often associated with prospective instability and violence. However, few studies in Melanesia have attempted to transfer to the page the rich, grounded, candid, and often contradictory, stories of young male urbanites.