"Sally Got a One Track Mind" from rapper/producer Diamond D and "Black Girl Lost" by "greatest of all time" contender Nas both chastise young women who chase the fast life, trading sex for money and material goods, but offer no critique of the men on the other side who would take advantage these girls. Perhaps the most famous offender comes from the late Tupac Shakur, and his first hit single "Brenda's Got a Baby." The song is notable for constantly being used by hip-hop's most ardent defenders to inoculate against claims of sexism and social irresponsibility, but take a close listen and we're back at square one.

While Tupac is truly broken up about the demise of this young girl named Brenda, everyone in her life is let off the hook for what happens to her. She's described as a pregnant 12 year-old with an absentee mother and a father more interested in drugs than her wellbeing, and she ends up being molested by her cousin. But the impression left is that this is largely her fault for barely having a brain and daring not to know that "just 'cause you're in the ghetto doesn't mean you can't grow." "Brenda's Got a Baby" is near sacrosanct in hip-hop circles, and has influenced the way rappers have approached their occasional nod to "conscious" listeners. Unfortunately, it set a muddled precedent.

There are, of course, some strong, if rare, examples of rap songs that get women right. The difference between them and songs like Fiasco's is they recognized the need to shelve their condemnation and allow the women who served as protagonists to exercise more control over the story.

De La Soul's 1991 record, "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa Claus," is a classic in hip-hop storytelling, the revenge tale of a teenage girl who kills the father who is molesting and beating her. Along the way, no one believes her cries for help, seeing Millie's father as unable to commit such a horrible act because he of his status in the community as a social worker who cares about the future and well-being of the children he mentors. He even volunteers to play Santa Claus at Macy's, the scene of his confessing to molesting his daughter, Millie's rage boiling over, and his death.

There's also the unexpected progressivism from an otherwise chauvinistic T.I. with his song entitled "Freak Though." In it, the self-appointed "King of the South" admits to falling in love with a woman known in his neighborhood for being sexually promiscuous. Instead of embracing the wrongheaded misogyny of the oft-repeated claim "you can't turn a ho into a housewife," he accepts who she is and loves her, not just in spite of, but because of it. Though he still thinks she may be "a tad misguided," ultimately he refuses to allow anyone to judge her or himself for the choices either of them has made.

In the best cases, these rappers realize the best way to accurately portray the lives of women is for the women to do it themselves. One such case is the Ice Cube song "It's A Man's World," from his debut solo album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. Here, Cube invited his protégé Yo-Yo to respond to his crude misogyny and ignorance directly on wax, resulting in some much-needed gut punches to the sexist male ego.