Hip-Hop's 12 Losers of Summer 2012

Image via Complex Original

Webbie almost went the entire summer without taking a huge L. He did give a head-scratching rant to a bunch of young kids, but we just chalked that up to Webbie being Webbie. However, earlier this week, he was arrested for allegedly kicking a woman in the head.

If that wasn't bad enough, he also allegedly stole $340 out of her purse. If he keeps it up, Webbie is gonna be sitting in a cell next to Lil Boosie reminiscing about the "Wipe Me Down" days.

Everyone's favorite tattooed white girl broke out in 2011 with her quirky but catchy viral smash "Gucci Gucci." We loved it that so much that we put her on our cover. But Kreay screwed up by waiting an entire calendar year to drop the second single off her debut album, Somethin' Bout Kreay.

When the 2 Chainz-assisted "Breakfast (Syrup)" finally dropped, it did little to garner any interest in her album. Same story with her third offering, "Go Hard (La.La.La.)." The album is set to drop in less than a week, but she's got little to no buzz. Is there still a chance that she's more than a flash in the pan?

The summer of 2012 was supposed to belong to Waka Flocka Flame. Building on the frantic momentum of his instant cult classic, Flockaveli, the release of Triple F Life: Fans, Friends & Family was supposed to be massive.

Instead of "bustin' at 'em," Flocka had us fist-pumping with B.o.B. and getting low with Flo Rida. While the old Flocka reared his contentious trap head for moments on tracks like "Lurkin" and "Let Dem Guns Blam", Waka's sophomore album was too radio-friendly and ultimately a disappointment. Triple F's across the board.

There’s nothing worse than when inter-squad beef spills over to public attacks on Twitter. Legendary duo Mobb Deep took a serious L this summer as they imploded for the world to watch. Twitter rants, fake stories, retracted statements, and an indefinite hiatus were all in the mix as Prodigy and Havoc went back and forth in the media.

Tracks from Havoc's upcoming solo album, 13, go at Prodigy for “dry snitching” and being fake and escalated the disgruntled relationship. With Prodigy’s second book in the works and Havoc’s solo LP full of ammo, it doesn’t look like we'll hear a new Mobb Deep album anytime soon.

It all seemed to be going well for Shyne Po. He was released from prison and signed a nice deal with Def Jam. He even reunited with Diddy at Paris Fashion Week. But after dropping “You’re Welcome” this summer, the beef with Diddy was back on.

Shyne’s anger doesn’t necessarily appear misplaced, as Diddy has even said he has not kept promises to Shyne, but why go at the guy you just broke bread with? A forgettable diss track will not dethrone the richest man in hip-hop, nor will it gain you favor in his court. Shyne looks like a disgruntled former employee who can’t get his emotions in order.

Where have all 50 Cent’s friends gone? Everyone tried to lick shots at Fif this summer, including his former inner circle. Fif explained that he rarely speaks with his former G-Unit crew members, Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks, and that he had to cut them off. Tony Yayo later responded to 50's comments by claiming that he started G-Unit—like anyone believes that.

Now the friendship between 50 and Floyd Mayweather has fallen on hard times as well. 50 recently teamed up with Manny Paquino in an apparent revenge business deal. You can tell this guy read the 48 Laws of Power.

Oh, and then there was that time Dr. Dre protégé, Slim the Mobster, called 50 Cent an F.B.I. informant and a homosexual. Of course, the loser here is Slim, who came off delusional and totally played himself.

We can't help but think of 50 like Michael Corleone at the end of Godfather II, a ruthless millionaire sitting on that park bench thinking about the last time he felt so alone.

Do any rappers pay taxes? Lauryn Hill never even filed them. She started the summer off by pleading guilty to national tax evasion of $1.8 mil and posed for a menacing mug shot. Then she refused an interview with the savior of troubled stars, Oprah, and, you guessed it, got hit with another $440k for state tax evasion.

The elusive Ms. Hill admitted it all in a lengthy Tumblr post about going “underground,” but honesty could get her three years in the clink and $75,000 dollars in fines. Let's hope her sentencing isn't too harsh in November.

What does taking shots at a legendary producer get you? As Bangladesh has shown us, not much. In an interview last month, he questioned Swizz Beatz relevance only to be met with a severe backlash.

Bangladesh later retracted his comments, said they were taken out of context, then admitted that he was indeed quoted correctly once the audio was released. Swizzy responded by calling Bangladesh a “clown” and left it at that. The entire ordeal made Bangladesh look like the irrelevant producer, not Swizz.

When Azealia Banks first hit the scene, we were impressed with her style and rhymes. We looking forward to finding out who she was and hearing more of her music. But this summer, it seemed like the Harlemite spent more time beefing with everyone from Funk Flex to Nicki Minaj to Jim Jones than crafting a worthy follow-up to her hit, "212."

She did drop her Fantasea mixtape in July, but the tape brought no new hits on the scale of "212." We like to see a young, paid woman who knows how to talk her shit, but we'd really love to see her drop better music to back it up.

RELATED: A History of Azealia Banks' Twitter Beefs

This summer changed the mixtape game forever. Lord Finesse and Warm Speakers each handed Mac Miller a $10 million dollar lawsuits for sampling their songs. Lord Finesse claimed Mac used “Hip 2 Da Game” without authorization, while Warm Speakers accused the Pittsburgh MC of taking the easy way out by sampling his track.

Mac took the high road and encouraged fans to do the same. In turn, the suit forced Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y to delay their upcoming tape, Live in Concert, over copyright concerns. Curren$y expressed sadness on Twitter and explained the lane may be evaporating for future MCs. Wiz spoke on the situation and gave some advice to upcoming rappers in our October/November cover story saying, “Make sure the songs that you publish sell more than your mixtape stuff.”

How do you get arrested for drugs and gun possession two weeks before you start a two-year bid for tax evasion? Ask Beanie Sigel.

Beans was scheduled to report to prison September 12, so we can all understand a little R&R after his sentencing. But driving around with lean, pills, and a handgun? Oh boy. Hopefully Beans can get his mind right, stay out of jail, and get back to spitting when he gets home.

Chief Keef kicked off 2012 with a ton of wins. The 17-year-old rapper from Chicago got out of jail, had his street banger "I Don't Like" blow up, and saw his buzz elevate to new heights when Kanye West and G.O.O.D. Music opted to remix his hit. All that momentum helped him land a major deal with Interscope in June.

Then it seems like his luck ran out. While "I Don't Like" still goes hard, Keef hasn't been able to make a follow-up as impressive. Worse yet, his Finally Rich mixtape has been delayed so there's no new music to expect any time soon. Let's not forget when he tweeted that Kanye didn't help his career and that he'd smack the shit out of Lupe Fiasco. Then Interscope took over his Twitter he claimed that his account was hacked.  

But the absolute worst thing to happen to Chief Keef this summer was the death of alleged rival Chicago rapper, Lil JoJo. Keef laughed about on Twitter, then the Chicago Sun-Times reported that police were investigating his tweets.

You can read all about the context of the incident here, but when you tweet about someone's death and then the police come knocking, that's the ultimate L.