oops! i'm late

I know I am posting a little late, I will admit I completely forgot, but I just had to say something anyway cause this weeks class really interested me.
I have a younger sister who is enthralled in the "gangster" culture at the moment. Music like 50 cent and other rap artists is always playing from her room. The majority of the time I can't stand it, aside from a few songs I will admit, I like. I always have seen this music as something that is perpetuating violence and condoning excessive drug use. For reasons like that I have a hard time accepting it. Hooks article and our class discussion changed my view slightly or at least made me think about it.
I have had some appreciation for rap artists before who would speak about how they were able to rise up out of the difficulties they had been living with and been able make something out of their lives. The difficulty though is that what they have made, through there lyrics, is just a perpetuation of negative things, such as violence towards women or using them solely as sexual objects.
I think that it is wonderful for people to be able to rise above labels that have been discursively put on their bodies throughout history, but why then do they need to pass similar and negative labels, like slut, to women and demean them?
This issue has definitely been turning the wheels in my mind and I find it hard for myself to sit on one side or the other of the argument.