An angry mother and her teenage son are suing bestselling hip hop artist 50 Cent and his associated record labels for an unusual but believable reason: They promote a violent, “gangsta lifestyle.”

In 2007 on a Manhattan sidewalk, four men (one of whom was Tony Yayo, a member of 50 Cent’s hip hip group “G-Unit”) intimidated and assaulted 14-year-old James Rosemond. They allegedly approached the boy because he was wearing a T-shirt promoting Czar Entertainment, a management label representing 50 Cent’s archrival (and former G-unit member) The Game—and because Rosemond is the son of Jimmy “Henchman” Rosemond, The Game’s manager. Yayo was sentenced to 10 days of community service for grabbing and “glaring” at Rosemond, while another man involved in the incident was sentenced to nine months in jail for slapping the teen.

Although 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, wasn’t present during the attack, the lawsuit names him along with Yayo and Universal Music Group labels for marketing a “‘gangsta’ image” that led to the assault. According to the suit, the defendants “encouraged, sanctioned, approved and condoned its members threatening violence, and or engaging in violent acts in furtherance of its business.” Prosecutors have been known to use rappers’ violent lyrics against them in assault and murder trials as evidence of their motives or character. Sometimes judges are willing to take the lyrics into account, and sometimes not.

Rap and hip hop received renewed criticism last year in the wake of shock jock Don Imus’ firing due to his on-the-air racial slur. Gangsta rappers regularly use that same slur in their songs, including 50 Cent, whose sexually explicit lyrics normally replace the word “woman” with “b—ch” and tend to glorify violence. (See 50 Cent song “In My Hood.” Warning: Explicit lyrics).

50 Cent himself bears nine bullet scars from a shooting in 2000. He was named the world’s bestselling hip hop artist by the 2007 World Music Awards.

In a separate case last week from Gainesville, Florida, five people shot during a fight after a rap concert are suing the nightclub, the rapper and his record label for negligence. The clients’ attorney claims the rapper’s gangsta lifestyle and violent lyrics contributed to the incident. Recent lawsuits follow on the heels of a study that points out rappers’ general glamorization of drug use. But while the lyrics and lives of gangsta rappers continue to give hip hop a bad name, some artists—like TobyMac, The Cross Movement, and KJ-52—are working to redeem the genre and use it to reach the unchurched.