The 25 Biggest Hip-Hop Fails of 2012 (So Far)

There's been enough drama over the past six months in the hip-hop world that we can't even imagine how the rest of the year is going to top it. So let's take a moment to sit back, relax, and be thankful you're not getting called out on Twitter, spilling Jay-Z's drink, or being sued for millions over a mixtape cut. Complex present the top 25 Hip-Hop Fails of 2012 (so far).

Written by Lauren Nostro (@LAURENcynthia), Max Goldberg (@goopygold), Brian Josephs (@Bklyn_Rock) and Jordan Zirm (@clevezirm)

Wale was so excited to celebrate at this year's BET Awards that he spilled Ace on Jay-Z's shoes. On the way to collect an award for Best Collaboration (for the Miguel-assisted "Lotus Flower Bomb") the MMG rapper dapped up Kanye, then bumped into Hov's glass of champagne. Sure, he apologized—twice—but that's still a fail.

This fail is absolutely heartbreaking. Nas spoke on working with Frank Ocean a few months ago and had fans waiting for the collaboration on his upcoming Life Is Good album.

The track "No Such Thing as White Jesus," which was produced by Hit-Boy, got lost and the corrupted file couldn't be fixed in time to drop on Life Is Good. New York Times pop music critic Jon Caramanica called the song "political and astute" and similiar to the intensity of "No Church In The Wild." During Caramanica's profile on Ocean for the Times, he sang partial lyrics of the song-which Caramanica noted as something that Nas "needed right now."

A lost Nas and Frank Ocean track? Fail, Hit-Boy. But he already knows this. He tweeted: “Yeah, I fucked up and lost the drive while traveling. That's why I'm not on Life is Good. Smh." We're shaking ours too.

The entire rap world was watching when Maybach Music Group orchestrated a press conference in May to make a big announcement. We speculated over things that Rick Ross may announce but when the big moment arrived, nobody expected former B2K member Omarion to grace the stage as MMG's newest signee.

“A lot of people have been wondering what’s up with Omarion?," he said at the conference. "Is his career over?"

Well, apparently not. But in joining the crew, Omarion turned a new page in his career. And so he took a new family nickname: "Maybach O." He even got it tattooed on his hand, which is a shame because that name is a fail.

Jay-Z's 40/40 Club in New York's Flatiron district finally reopened after months of renovation and Jay celebrated with a celebrity-filled party. The only problem was a NYC health inspector joined in on the fun, only to find one of the refrigerators broken and a number of food items stored at incorrect temperatures. The club was closed for a day.

And that's not the only trouble the 40/40 Club has had. Last September, Jay's spot got the Union Rat treatment for contractors not paying employees Area Standard Wages. Club management claims it's in a non-union building and is not required to use union workers. Either way, for a place that's so full of celebrities and that's owned by one of the most successful men in the world, the 40/40 has had a few too many problems.

Back in February, Lil Wayne was being interviewed on the radio when he casually mentioned that Cash Money had signed the 90s rap/rock band, Limp Bizkit. The announcement came after Cash Money signed Mystikal and Busta Rhymes. As Wayne put it, YM was now "signing everybody."

Frontman Fred Durst took to Twitter to celebrate the big news: "The game is missing danger, electricity, and rock n roll!!!! Cash Money Limp Bizkit." After a few months, we haven't heard much from the band that gave us "Nookie" back in 1999. Not sure if anybody really has a strong thirst for Durst at this point, but until we see some danger or electricity, we're calling this one a fail on Young Money's part. Maybe they'll have better luck with Ashanti.

When Jay-Z took to Philly for a press conference to announce his "Made in America" festival line-up, the crowd was ecstatic to see the former Roc-A-Fella artist and Philly native Freeway take the stage. Everything seemed all good until people starting taking photos and Freeway was pushed to the side…literally.

There's no drama between Hov and Philly Freezer, though. Sources say Freeway knew he wouldn't be posing alongside Jay-Z, Philly mayor Michael Nutter and officials from Anheuser-Busch and the United Way because of past felony drug charges. Who knows the real reason but the whole thing was awkward. Freeway looked like a pouty child hanging to the side like that.

When it comes to sports, Lil' Wayne could be accused of being a fair-weather fan. He hails from New Orleans yet backs the Green Bay Packers and has shown up at plenty of Laker and Heat games. All of these teams have something in common: None of them lose very often. But Wayne has been accepted at each arena he's graced with his presence, usually securing court-side seats without a problem.

Wayne found out the hard way that they do things a little different out in the middle of the country when he tried to roll up to the Oklahoma City Thunder's playoff game against San Antonio without a ticket. Expecting to be ushered to a courtside seat to watch Kevin Durant ball, he was denied access completely. Everyone is treated equally in OKC, Mr. Carter.

It's been a rough year for rappers and taxes. For starters, former Roc-A-Fella rapper Beanie Sigel was sentenced to two years in a Philadelphia prison for failing to pay $728,000 in federal income taxes over a six-year span from 1999 to 2005.

This won't be Sigel's first time behind bars: he's been locked up for weapon and drug possession in 2004 and in 2008 for violating his probation a few times. He also faces up to three years in prison and a lawsuit stemming from a shooting outside of Philadelphia's Power 99. It's sad to see Beanie failing like this. Maybe he can call up his old friend Jay for a little help and guidance.

When Lupe dropped “Around My Way (Freedom Ain't Free),” a song that sampled Pete Rock & CL Smooth's classic tune “T.R.O.Y.,” Pete Rock didn't take it as an homage. Instead he took his case to Twitter to lash out against Lupe, urging the hip-hop world to leave his classic beat alone. But days later, Pete Rock was making plans to work with Lupe in the studio. What happened to all that righteous indignation? Fail.

Lupe Fiasco's "Around My Way (Freedom Ain't Free)":

Pete Rock's "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)":

Azealia Banks may be on her way to a successful career but she needs to learn the golden rule: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Banks has had some not-so-nice things to say about a number of people this year—Lil Kim, Kreayshawn. She fired two of her managers. But her Twitter war with Iggy Azalea and her mentor T.I. was Banks' biggest fail.

According to Iggy, the drama started last year at the CMJ Music Festival when Banks tweeted she had a song about Barbie before Nicki Minaj and a song called "Pussy" before Iggy. Then after Iggy made the XXL Freshman list, Banks criticized her lyric "I'm a runaway slave ... master" as racist. Iggy apologized immediately. When T.I. came to Iggy's defense, Azealia didn't have anything nice to say either. This fail is on Azealia Banks—focus on making your music before making enemies. Maybe she's learning; deleting her Twitter account was a good first step.

It would've been all good if Samuel L. Jackson just came on stage and introduced himself as the host of the 2012 BET Awards. But in an effort to appear hip, Jackson decided to bring his pal Spike Lee along for a corny satirical performance of "Negroes in Paris." The effort was there, but between all the unfunny pop culture references and the forgotten lyrics, we can't cut them any slack. It was a lame way to start the show, but thankfully Jackson kept it classy the rest of the night.

Soulja Boy seems to be a little confused. The Stacks on Deck CEO fired shots on Twitter at viral Internet rapper Riff Raff, who was closely associated with Soulja Boy not too long ago. "Riff raff is not in sodmg" he tweeted, closely followed by “Riff Raff was never in Sodmg for real he faked and used our name to promote his garbage you owe us money pussy and u a cokehead.” Did he forget about those videos he made with Riff Raff? Or his Tweet welcoming his "newest artist" Riff Raff to SODMG last year?

Riff Raff told Complex there's no hard feelings—and it's true. Why should he worry about a deal gone wrong with SODMG when he's got Mad Decent backing him now and Diplo buying him $45,000 chains? Soulja Boy, that would be a fail.

It was the tweet heard 'round the world. Lil Wayne took to Twitter back in May with these kind words to Pusha T: "Fuk Pusha T and anybody that love em." Sounds like he wasn't too happy with that verse in Pusha's "Exodus 23:1" that was supposedly aimed at Drake.

Shortly after the tweet, Wayne dropped a tune called "Ghoulish" with the opening line "Fuck Pusha T and anybody that love him/His head up his ass, I'ma have to head-butt him." Yes, that's a fail. The rhymes were underwhelming and the whole track sounded like a hasty attempt to fire shots at Pusha, who most likely sat back laughing. This wasn't the first of the YMCMB / G.O.O.D. Music lyrical attacks, but it may be the worst.

In what may be the most depressing fail on our list, Lauryn Hill faces up to three years in jail for tax evasion. Earlier this month Ms. Hill pleaded guilty on three counts of evading taxes on $1.8 million of earnings between 2005 and 2007.

She took to Tumblr in June to address the situation, claiming that her "potential to work" was in danger. "There were no exotic trips, no fleet of cars, just an all out war for safety, integrity, wholeness and health, without mistreatment, denial, and/or exploitation," she wrote.

It would be a sad situation to see one of the most legendary and respected artists of our time head to prison—especially with six young children at home. Sorry Lauryn, but this is a fail on your part. Everyone has to pay their taxes, even if they were miseducated.

In April, Nas released "Daughters," the first single off his album Life Is Good, which focuses on the challenges of raising kids. It was a great song that spoke about a not-so-great real-life situation. Two months prior, Destiny Jones, his 17-year-old with Carmen Bryan, had people talking about certain tweets she posted.

"Keep dis cute lil box on my nightstand. My home girls know what I keep in it. Can yu guess? Lol" captioned the photo of the closed box, followed by a look inside: a collection of condoms. Shortly after, Destiny showed off her new Mercedes named "Cocaine."

On "Daughters" Nas rhymes, "She's on Twitter, I know she ain't gon post no pic/Of herself underdressed, no inappropriate shit, right/Her mother cried when she answered/Said she don't know what got inside this child's mind, she planted/A box of condoms on her dresser then she Instagrammed it/At this point I realized I ain't the strictest parent/I'm too loose, I'm too cool with her." 

In his Complex cover story, Nas admitted that raising kids is tougher than he ever imagined. We can only hope that little box is long gone now.

For his breakout cut "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza," Mac Miller did what so many other artists do on free mixtapes—he rapped over a classic instrumental, in this case Lord Finesse's 1995 "Hip 2 Da Game." Rostrum Records, Miller and Dat Piff—which hosted the free mixtape—refused to comply with a cease and desist letter from Finesse earlier this month. So Finesse decided to sue for $10 million.

According to the complaint: "This is a case about a teenage rapper—Mac Miller—copying the music from a song written, produced and performed by Lord Finesse, a hip hop legend, changing the title and then distributing it under his own name in order to launch his music career."

But we've got to give this Fail to Lord Finesse. According to Miller, the two spoke about the track, Finesse was cool with it, and they even planned to work together in the near future. They're also still speaking on Twitter, again and again. Most ironic of all, Miller says Lord Finesse never cleared the Oscar Peterson sample he used on the original. Long story short, the kid was paying homage. This needs to be put to rest.

Check Mac Miller's video:

And here's Lord Finesse's:

After being locked up for six years on charges of sexual battery and extortion, Mystikal was finally a free man in 2010. Then he signed with YMCMB and relaunched his rap career. But after less than two years of freedom, Mystikal ended up right back in the bing.

The rapper of “Shake Ya Ass” fame was arrested in April on a misdemeanor charge of domestic abuse, violating his probation and landing him back in the slammer for three more months. Perhaps next time he'll make it the full two years before he ends up with his hands in cuffs again. Or just learn to keep his hands off women.

Being a CEO is always a good look in the rap community. Just look at Jay-Z, Sean Combs, and Russell Simmons. Swizz Beatz tried to hop on the wave with the file sharing site Megaupload, but the business move almost turned disasterous for the producer when the company was shut down on racketeering and copyright infringement charges.

Fortunately Swizz Beatz avoided being named in the suit because the accusations stemmed from MegaUpload's actions before Swizz Beatz's involvement. Turns out he never officially inked the deal that would've made him CEO, so his title was unofficial. Getting involved with Megaupload was a fail, but catching the case would've been far worse.

Last week, Game and his crew jumped fellow West Coast rapper 40 Glocc in Los Angeles and recorded it all on his iPhone. Thank you, technology. The footage, which made its way straight to WorldStarHipHop, led to tweets from both sides—40 Glocc claims Game and crew pulled guns on him leaving him defenseless.

Game summarized the attack by tweeting "Iphone in my left hand..... Mayweather'n this nigga with my right !!! #AtTheSameDamnTime" and later went on to say he didn't kill 40 Glocc "because then [he'd] get 25 to life." Apparently, the fight was a result of 40 Glocc posing as Game's oldest child on Twitter.

Either way, Game you snitched on yourself by recording the fight and bragging about it on Twitter. A grown man shouldn't aspire to have videos of himself fighting go viral on WorldStarHipHop. But if you post it, we'll watch.

Just when things started to calm down from the bar brawl at W.i.P. Chris Brown jumped on Game's remix of Chief Keef's "I Don't Like (Remix)" to fire some more shots at Drake.

"A fuck ni**a, that’s that shit I don’t like/They throwin’ bottles, I’m throwin’ models just ’cause I give a bitch long pipe..." etc. etc. Fail, Chris. Give it a rest.

Either you loved or hated Nicki's attention-grabbing performance at the 54th annual Grammy Awards earlier this year. If you happen to be down with The Catholic League, you hated it. Nicki's five-minute performance of "Roman Holiday" and "Roman's Revenge," featured dancing priests and an on-stage exorcism. She even walked the red carpet with a fake pope.

Nicki says she was inspired by the 1973 movie The Exorcist, but overall, the performance was a fail. The worst part? Nicki bending backwards while an altar boy prayed between her knees. We know Nicki likes the idea of possession but with all the reports of child-abuse in the church that was downright offensive.

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Things have been a little rough for Canibus lately. Following up his confusing and failed J. Cole diss on "J.Clone"—and subsequent apology—'Bis kept the L's coming by bringing a notepad into a rap battle at KOTD. That's a no-no even if he apologized for it later.

The image of Canibus with one arm in a sling and the other grasping a notepad is the very definition of a struggle rapper. Here's hoping that Canibus regains his former stature and skill, but until then we will remember him for this epic fail.

In what has been called one of the corniest rap beefs of all time, Common and Drake threw shots at each other on a number of tracks. Common's "Sweet" accused Drake of being a "soft motherfucker." Drake shot back on the smash hit "Stay Schemin,'" then Common fired back on a remix, referring to Drake as "Canada Dry."

After all the musical back and forth, Drake and Common met face-to-face at the NBA All-Star Game, and the two artists seemed pretty chummy with each other. Drake rapped "You're like the finish line/We can't wait to run into you." But when they did, nothing happened. Fail.

Did Havoc lose his mind earlier this year? One-half of Mobb Deep took to Twitter to air out his long-time group partner, Prodigy, for "fucking homes in jail." So there's that. Tweets from Havoc's account called his longtime partner a pussy, a Long Island bitch, and threatened to lay him out—among other things.

Havoc later explained that his phone was hacked after being left at a gas station on his way to Jersey. Of course. But Power 105's The Breakfast Club went on to find audio of Havoc taking similar shots at Prodigy. Havoc went on air to dispute the audio and explain how the phone hacker was able to get onto his Twitter. Does anybody really believe this explanation? Fail.

Just five hours before Nicki was expected to take the stage as one of Summer Jam 2012's headliners, Hot 97 on-air personality Peter Rosenberg dissed Minaj's "Starships" song.

"I see the real hip-hop heads sprinkled in here. I see them. I know there are some chicks here waiting to sing 'Starships' later—I'm not talking to y'all right now. Fuck that bullshit. Bullshit. I'm here to talk about real hip-hop shit," Rosenberg said, which led Lil Wayne to pull all of Young Money out of the lineup at the last minute.

Rosenberg, who made it clear he'd never apologize for the comments, explained that he was just trying to hype up the crowd for more underground artists. Nicki went on to defend herself on Funk Flex's show the next day, leading to quite an interesting conversation as Flex tried to get to the bottom of things.

Is "Starships" a real hip-hop jam? No. But when a performer as major as Nicki is headlining your show, it's a bad look to criticize their music on stage shortly before they perform (or choose not to perform, as the case may be). Peter Rosenberg, you take the cake for the biggest fail in hip hop this year (so far). Check the full video of Rosenberg's comments below: