ONTD

The history of R&B is filled with smooth-talking, well-dressed playboys and dolled-up beauties with million-dollar voices. Underneath the glamorous sheen though, as we saw with our Rock Fails list and our Hip-Hop Fails list, there's certain elements that transcend genres and almost always lead to artists finding themselves in compromising positions. Human nature is human nature at the end of the day.

Some of these transcendent elements include the ego that comes with being worshiped by large amounts of people, the easy access to drugs, groupies, and alcohol, and now with the digital age, the prevalence of social media and camera phones. So as we look at The 50 Worst R&B Fails, expect affairs to be had, bad outfits to be worn, drugs to be abused, underwhelming albums to be created, and sometimes, unfortunately, a bit of domestic abuse. It's not always about baby-making music. Sometimes someone gets pee'd on...



#50. Keri Hilson Gets Too Slutty In "The Way You Love Me" Video



Dear Keri, you were supposed to be our "sexy for us, but cute for mom" R&B girl. We enjoyed your “Pretty Girl Rock” vid switching from T-Boz to Beyonce. But then you hooked up with that crazy choreographer from “Making The Band” and she turned you into a greasy, thrusting, gyrating...did you just lick the door? That's just unsanitary. Don't get us wrong, you still looked great, but we're still trying to figure out what you meant by “thug me.”


#49. Kelis Dresses Up Like A Character In "Avatar"



Going through a divorce is not easy for anyone. It may even lead one to dress like a cross between a mermaid and a mythical beast from Narnia. Kelis looked like she should've been an extra for Avatar, the straight-to-DVD version. And even with all funkiness going on, our eyes keep getting drawn to the massive camel toe.

#48. Omarion Is On Then Off Young Money



Well, that was quick. After only two months, the former B2K star went from being down with Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, and Drake to having an “Ice Box” where his crew used to be. Rumor was that O got dropped for leaking an unauthorized single featuring Wayne. Both parties denied it and said they went their separate ways for business reasons, of course.

#47. Jazmine Sullivan Retires Via Twitter, Deletes Tweets, & Unretires



In a series of Tweets, she said “I'm making an official announcement that i am taking a break from music. I'm trying to figure out who i am... w/out a mike, paper or pen. i promised myself when it wasn't fun anymore i wouldn't do it.” An hour later, they were deleted and the next day there was a new song, with Sullivan tweeting that she was “just switching things up a little bit” and suggested a prayer circle for Kanye. Somewhere somebody cared, we think.

#46. D'Angelo Becomes Fat



Eleven years later, his “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” video still gets the ladies steaming. So imagine the disappointment when his mugshot, for soliciting an undercover cop for sex, revealed that one of R&B's Lotharios ballooned to a bloated ball of confusion. His puffy face alone had ten more pounds on it. He looked more ODB (R.I.P.) than “Brown Sugar.”

#45. Fantasia Says She's "Functionally Illiterate"



She had a great story...a black single mom who became an “American Idol”...who later put out a New York Times best-selling memoir. Fairy tale-esque, right? Well, the then 21-year-old revealed that she was “functionally illiterate” and signed contracts without fully understanding them and struggled to read to her daughter.

#44. Stevie Wonder's Experimental Album "Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants" Fails to Grow



Yes, he's a genius. But he got mad with this one. It was a score to the documentary Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants. Already off to a bad start. The film was a flop so fans were left with a double album of instrumentals that made no sense to them. The worst part is that it ended his streak of six classic albums starting from 1971.

#43. Destiny's Child Gets Booed At The NBA Finals



During halftime of Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Lakers and the 76ers, Destiny's Child performed “Bootylicious” and “Survivor.” Nobody fell, nobody's voice cracked, and nobody forgot their lyrics. But they got showered with boos. Perhaps it was Michelle's Lakers jersey even though Kelly wore a 76ers jersey and Beyonce an NBA jersey. Perhaps they were mad that their team was losing. Perhaps it was Philly fans just being Philly fans. After all, they did boo Santa Clause at an Eagles game once. Either way, Destiny's Child got booed in front of millions on national TV.

#42. Marques Houston Wears See-Through Rain Coat To The MTV Movie Awards



Did he just wear a see-through raincoat to the MTV Movie Awards? Wait, no, I think it's a see-through plastic suit. No, wait, it's a see-through plastic suit with a hood, you know, just in case it rains. Oh, OK, well...that makes no sense

#41. Cassie Attempts to Sing on "106 & Park" and "TRL" (WON'T EMBED, CLICK LINK)



You could see the fear in her face. Nobody expected the girl plucked out of the club to blow like Etta James, but we at least wanted Ashanti-level quality. Even she knew how badly she sounded as we could barely hear her and when we did, we wish we hadn't. It's like she wasn't even trying to sound good. She looked and sounded as if someone forgot to press play on the vocal track. The usual raucous teen crowd's lack of enthusiasm was equivalent to a booing Apollo audience.

#40. Ne-Yo's Mugshot Reveals What He's Been Hiding Under His Hats



“Officer, look, I know I was driving over 100 mph and I don't have my license on me. I can pay the fine. But is there anything I can do to keep my hat on for my mugshot? You see, it's my signature look and I get praised on my sense of style and at 28, this thing I got going with my hairline is just not a good look for me. No? Man, I'm feeling so sick...”

#39. Former 3LW Member & Cheetah Girl Kiely Williams Records Pro-Date Rape Song



“Last I remember I was face down/Ass up, clothes off, broke off, dozed off/Even though I'm not sure of his name...” sounds like testimony from a date rape trial right? Wait, it goes on. “He could get it again if he wanted/Cause the sex was spectacular.” What? Fellas, we don't recommend trying this approach. The low budget video with the male butt shot in bed pushed it over the top.

#38. Tyrese Becomes Black Ty



Tyrese's had a lot of success singing and acting. But rapping? He shoulda left that alone. On disc two of his double album, Alter Ego, he rapped as “Black-Ty” and recruited Method Man, Snoop, Kurupt, The Game, and others. Even with all that, folks weren't buying the ego, as it became his lowest selling album. In ‘07, he told MTV that Black Ty was here to stay and while since then he's had five movies come out starring as Tyrese Gibson, he hasn't released any music.

#37. Aretha Franklin Tries To Go Disco



Just because you're the Queen of Soul doesn't mean you can or should do everything. The music was changing and disco was taking over. Her recent previous works struggled so she tried to ride the trend, but nobody wanted to hear Aretha on disco tracks. The trailblazer got burned, and it's still the worst selling album on her otherwise shiny Atlantic catalogue.

#36. Michelle Falls on "106 & Park," Kelly & Beyonce Keep Performing



Everyone knows the show is taped, but that didn't stop Beyonce and Kelly from continuing to perform when Michelle hit the deck five seconds into the song. Kelly at least stops to shoot her an annoyed look. B barely looks, instead getting into her dance routine. Poor Michelle bounces back up and finishes the song, which was fittingly, “Soldier.”

#35. Jojo Passes Out On Stage, K-Ci Keeps Sangin'



While performing their massive hit ballad “All My Life,” in Sydney, Australia, Jojo cold knocked out on stage and dropped the mic. His brother K-Ci took a look and kept on singing. A security guard passed by, grabbed the mic off the floor, and got off stage. K-Ci even asked the crowd to give it up for Jojo, who was still motionless, and passed out. Although many speculated the incident was related to drug and alcohol abuse, K-Ci explained that Jojo merely had an epileptic seizure, which still doesn't explain why he didn't help his brother up.

#34. Musiq Soulchild Forgets The Lyrics To The National Anthem



Other singers have done it, but none have while performing for arguably the greatest basketball player of all-time. While singing at the Jordan Classic which was being broadcast live on ESPNU, Musiq forgets the lyrics, pulls the mic away from his face and pauses while the high school players cover their faces in laughter. But we'll bet that it was Jordan's furrowed forehead and look of disappointment on national TV that was the most embarrassing of all.

#33. Eric Benet Cheats On Halle Berry



R&B heads knew him and his music. The masses did not. But that changed when he married Halle, one of the most beautiful women in the world. So now that everybody knows him, he gets caught cheating with an old flame, confesses to being a sex addict and goes to rehab for it. Dude, you cheated on Halle Berry, right after she won an Oscar. Halle Berry?!

#32. Janet Jackson's "Discipline" Flops, Gets Boyfriend Jermaine Dupri Booted



Here's an argument for not mixing business and pleasure. Janet's boyfriend Jermaine Dupri was the President of Urban Music at Island Def Jam, her label. Post-nipplegate and the lackluster sales of her last album, 20 Y.O., he took it upon himself to make Discipline a smash. It was not. Do you remember any hits from it? Neither do we. After the disappointing sales, Jermaine claimed to have left on his accord while others said he got pushed out, and followed his departure from the company by lashing out at his mentor and at the time, Island Def Jam CEO, L.A. Reid, in interviews.

#31. Mr. Biggs A.K.A. Ronald Isley Does Time for Tax Evasion



When your nickname is Mr. Biggs, you're not supposed to go to jail for tax evasion. But that's what happened to the soul legend when he failed to pay $3.1 million in back taxes. At age 65, he served three years in jail. At one time, he was listed as one of the most delinquent taxpayers in the state of California. Down low...too bad everybody had to know.

#30. Sisqo Calls Himself The Most Talented Artist In R&B



The singer best known for "The Thong Song" saw the end of his relevancy fast approaching when the response to the the first single off of his second album, Return of the Dragon, tanked. He got desperate, and began taking shots at Usher and R. Kelly, proclaiming that "no one in R&B can touch my skill" and "no one can out-sing me" in interviews. People saw through the gimmick, and it did nothing to help his flailing image as he succumbed to a fall into obscurity.

#29. Motown's Biggest Names Leave Label For Better Deals



Berry Gordy created an empire, revolutionized music, and even help race relations with Motown Records. But when some of his biggest artists who started on the label left for more commercial labels, word on the grapevine was that better deals could be had elsewhere. Who left? Gladys Knight (Buddha), Jackson 5 (CBS), and even his baby mama, Diana Ross (RCA). Don't leave me this way?

#28. Toni Braxton Goes Bankrupt...Twice



How does a singer who has sold around 40 million albums go bankrupt? Having a shitty record contract explains the first time in 1998. The second time in 2010 when she was facing between $10-50 million in debt, she said it was due to her discoid lupus and microvascular angina causing her to have to cancel a string of show dates in Las Vegas. Although we're sympathetic for sure, when the creditors you listed while filing for bankruptcy include American Express, Tiffany's, BMW, and The Four Seasons, can't some of your financial troubles be attributed to your lack of money management skills?

#27. Usher Marries Tameka Foster



A romance between an artist and his stylist is pretty common. Getting involved to one who is seven years older with three kids while still legally married is not so common. But the boy Ursher, against the wishes of his mother (she didn't even attend the wedding), married Tameka only to divorce her two years later. During their marriage he put out Here I Stand, basically an adult contemporary album filled with ballads, confusing his younger audience. After the divorce, rumors circulated of a raunchy sextape of them that never materialized, which for once, we're thankful for

#26. Brandy Promotes Her Fake Marriage



When you project a wholesome image, you need to protect it, even if it means lying. Brandy got knocked up by producer Robert Smith who was dating another woman at the time. So naturally she announced they were getting married and documented her childbirth on a four-part special on MTV before announcing her separation from Smith. Two years later, she said the split wasn't painful because she wasn't in love. Smith hit back and claimed they were never married. She claimed it was a “non-traditional marriage.” Bet the Palin clan was paying attention.

#25. All The Girls That Were Booted From Destiny's Child



LaTavia, LeToya, and Farrah were all cut from team DC like the 12th (wo)man on a championship team. LaTavia and LeToya accused their manager Papa Knowles of favoring Kelly and Beyoncé and taking too much of their money. They found out they were kicked out when they saw the “Say My Name” video had new members Michelle and Farrah. A year later Farrah was out for not being able to handle the busy schedule. All the exes took shots in the press. But by the time the remaining three dropped “Survivor” and sang “You thought I wouldn't sell without ya/Sold nine million,” it was clear who won.

#24. DeVante Swing Of Jodeci Drunk At Subway On Camera



Mr. Dalvin is the only Jodeci member not to make this list. An obviously drunk Devante stumbles and bumbles, trying to place an order multiple times, only to fall over chairs and tables, even putting them back in place. This was at 5PM! Security cameras captured everything, including his arrest for public drunkenness.

#23. T-Pain Impressed By Ray-J's “Huge Meat”



“It's not too many guys who can go after Ray J. The man's got huge meat OK...the man is packing. He's got length on him. He got a foot on him. Man-to-man, no homo. I know when respect is due. Man is swangin'. Y'all know the man is swangin'.”

#22. Dru Hill Reunites Then Breakups During A Radio Interview



You book an interview with your hometown radio station to announce your reunion. Good. One of your groupmates says on the air that he is quitting to pursue gospel. Uh oh. “So you leaving the group right now on the radio?! Oh hell no man. You coulda told us this yesterday,” says Sisqo before storming out. Then Woody, who quit, and Nokio start tussling while Jazz tries to break it up. And of course, it's all captured on video.

#21. Chris Brown's Tirade On "Good Morning America"



In the end, Breezy may go down as the angriest R&B singer of all-time. After Robin Roberts asked him about Rihanna, he performed a song then naturally stormed off the stage, trashed his dressing room, smashed a window, confronted a show producer, and strutted through Times Square with his shirt off for all paparazzi to capture.

#20. Teddy Riley Accused Of Beating Daughters With A Rock Band Guitar And Then Explodes On Twitter



Yup yup...the former New Jack Swing king was accused of attacking his daughters and threatening to kill them while holding a Rock Band guitar. Worse than the restraining order filed against him was the Twitter beef between his daughter and his girlfriend (“U R NOT MY FAMILY!!!”), both the same age, as well as his own daughter airing their business out on the (Black)street (“ur gona b a sorry old lonely man that gold digger leaves u.”).

#19. Tevin Campbell Outed Via Solicitation Arrest



Once a 12-year-old prodigy championed by Quincy Jones and Prince, rumors of his sexual orientation swirled early. He avoided directly answering the question his whole career. Then ten years later, he got busted for soliciting oral sex from a male undercover cop in a well-known gay cruising zone. Not exactly the way you want to come out to the world.

#18. The City High Love Triangle



Claudette Ortiz. Ryan Toby. Robby Pardlo. Claudette dated Robby in high school. The two formed a group. Then they brought in Ryan. The three became City High. Wyclef signed them. Got nominated for a Grammy. She broke up with Robby while they were still a group to start dating Ryan (awkward!), and later married Ryan and had a baby with him. Last year, Robby appeared on A&E's Intervention revealing his battle with alcoholism, citing the Claudette and Ryan situation as a tipping point. “What Would You Do?”

#17. Spectacular Of Pretty Ricky Dances In His Underwear



Guess when you pick a Chippendale dancer-like name (not that we would know), you're compelled to not only dance and gyrate in your underwear to one of your songs, but to record it and put it online for everyone to see. We really don't have much to say about this. The video says it all.

#16. Keke Wyatt Stabs Her Husband



Her career was just taking off thanks to a couple hit single duets with Avant, when she got arrested for allegedly stabbing her husband/manager on Jesus' birthday. According to the police, a part of the knife had to be removed from his back. She faced 20 years in jail and in a strange twist, her album sales went up after the incident, eventually going gold. Her future albums failed to stick around though.

#15. Ike beats Tina, Tina Goes On To Huge Solo Success



Before Breezy, Ike was the most famous woman beater, immortalized in so many rap lyrics. Most of the world was introduced to Ike's abusive ways via the hit movie What's Love Got To Do With It. Based on a book by Tina, the film depicted Ike as manipulative and violent husband who drove his wife to an attempted suicide. She eventually ran away, fought to keep her stage name given by Ike, and went on to reinvent herself in the ‘80s as “The Queen of Rock n' Roll.” Ike continued to make music, but didn't come close to achieving Tina's success.

#14. Left Eye Burns Down Boyfriend Andre Rison's House



She alleged her boyfriend Andre Rison, wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, abused her. He alleged she was drunk and violent and he had to calm her down with a slap. He left and she lit up either a piece of cardboard or his sneakers in the bathtub in one of the five bathrooms in the six-bedroom, million dollar mansion. She came back outside and smashed up three of his cars and drove away. The house burned down, she got arrested, and later posed on the cover of VIBE dressed in a fireman uniform with TLC. Burn baby burn!

#13. 2Pac Claims He Slept With Faith Evans During Bad Boy Beef




“You claim to be a player/But I fucked your wife,” Pac yelled out on “Hit' Em Up.” By the time Faith sang on Pac's “Wonda Why They Call U Bitch,” she was already estranged from Biggie, but the beef was still strong. Pac released a photo of him with his arm draped around a glassy-eyed Faith who seems to be trying to throw a “W,” further fanning the flames. During an interview with MTV on the set of the “California Love” video shoot, Pac counts money and winks at the camera while giving a shout out to Faith. She of course denied anything happened, but it was a bad look for her, Big, and some said NY.

#12. Amy Winehouse Smokes Crack On Camera



Who knew she'd become a punch line in a Fab verse (“Let me find out/I got you Amy Wine-d out”). Millions of records sold and five Grammys couldn't keep the British soul singer away from the perils of substance abuse. Skinny, stumbling around a messy house with smashed glass on the floors, you see a harried Amy rambling, smoking crack, and talking about tripping on ecstasy and Valium. Well, she did tell us that she wouldn't go to rehab, no, no, no.

#11. Lauryn Hill Loses Her Mind



Call it the Grammy curse. After winning five (like Winehouse) of them for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, she got disillusioned by the fame machine and disappeared. When we did see her, she'd ramble and cry out new songs on MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 as her voice cracked. Photos of her looking like "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" surfaced, she'd appear on stage hours late at concerts only to scold fans for being upset, and sometimes she wouldn't even show up. Funny how money changes situations...

#10. Akon Freaks 15-Year-Old Preacher's Daughter On Stage



He picks her up. He puts her down. He tosses her all over the stage. Repeat. All the while he's thrusting. Another guy jumps in. It's all captured on video. They're all having a great time with...wait she's 15? She's a preacher's daughter? Oh man. It didn't matter that the club was 21+, once the video hit the ‘Net, the Trinidadian government and U.S. news outlets all condemned him. But when Verizon pulled his ringtones and their sponsorship of his tour, Akon was left feeling “Lonely.”

#9. R. Kelly Marries A 15-year-old Aaliyah



He produced most of her debut album, appropriately entitled Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, and appeared on the cover and in her videos. He wrote lyrics like “Let me show you to ecstasy/Boy be brave don't be afraid/Cause tonight we're gonna go all the way” for her to sing. So when the rumors of their relationship and even a marriage certificate surfaced, we weren't completely shocked. That would come a few years later when R's alleged thing for under-aged girls would get bootlegged all over the hood

#8. Raz-B Accuses Ex-Manager of Sexual Abuse, Denies It, Denies The Denial



The former B2K member took to YouTube to air out some dirty claims against his former manager Chris Stokes. Not only did Raz-B accuse him of improperly touching him and making him shower with the group when he was a kid, he also claimed Marques Houston was also abused. The next day he took it all back and apologized. Three years later, he accused Stokes of repeatedly molesting boys, making him have sex with him, and that his ex-manager and Houston were gay lovers. As for what's been up with his career, we have no clue.

#7. Rick James Kidnaps And Burns Victim With Crack Pipe



Out on bail for a previous kidnapping and beating incident, Rick “Super Freak” James and his girlfriend/future wife Tanya Hijazi took a girl hostage for six days, tied her up, sexually assaulted her, and burned her with a crack pipe while getting Tony Montana high on coke. He served two years in Folsom and paid out $2 million in a civic lawsuit. Cocaine's a helluva a drug.

#6. Mariah Carey's Meltdown On "TRL"



Mariah surprises everyone by bursting onto the TRL set pushing an ice cream cart dressed in only a T-shirt as host Carson Daly is about to cut to commercial. “What are you doing here? What are you wearing? Holy crap,” asks a confused Daly. Mariah rambles, strips off her shirt revealing a tank top and glittery short-shorts, and hands out cones to the audience. “I just want one day off when I can go swimming and eat ice cream and look at rainbows,” she says. Daly looks into the camera and says, “Mariah Carey's lost her mind.” One week later, she checked into a hospital citing “extreme exhaustion.”

#5. Janet Jackson's Nipplegate



A former Mouseketeer and white male pop heartthrob, exposed the pierced nipple of Jackson, a black female music icon, during the Super Bowl, which is the biggest TV event of the year. The phrase “wardrobe malfunction” became a thing, and the half-second exposed boob became a launch pad for discussions on indecency, race and sex, and countless jokes. Biggest loser of the night was Viacom as MTV lost Super Bowl halftime production duties and CBS got hit with the biggest FCC fine in history.

#4. Whitney Houston Marrying Bobby Brown



She was America's darling who brought the country to tears with her stirring rendition of the National Anthem at the Super Bowl as Desert Storm kicked off. He was the bad boy gyrating and getting arrested for lewd behavior at concerts. They got married. They did drugs. She lost crazy weight, skipped big appearances, sweated profusely on camera, her angelic voice deteriorated, and said she made “too much money to ever smoke crack” during an interview with Diane Sawyer. He got arrested for beating her, lost his teeth, “Bobby Brown jaw” became a thing, and some of the train wreck that was their marriage was captured on the reality show Being Bobby Brown.

#3. Michael Jackson Admits To Sleepovers With Underage Boys



Martin Bashir gave Michael Jackson several chances to say the right thing in front of 38 million people on ABC, but the Gloved One simply refused. His smile and “Yessssss” response to sharing a bedroom with Gavin, a 12-year-old boy, is super creepy. What should have been a show about how normal he was turned out to be the opposite especially when he reveals, “I have slept in the bed with a lot of children...that's what the world needs now...what's wrong with sharing love?"

#2. Chris Brown Beats Down Rihanna



After leaving Clive Davis' legendary Grammy party, Chris Brown allegedly beat his girlfriend Rihanna, pounding her with his fists and even biting her inside his rented Lamborghini during an argument, before fleeing the scene. TMZ got a hold of a photo of a barely recognizable Rihanna, revealing contusions to her face and a split lip. Soon after, Brown got dropped by Wrigley and was treated as a pariah. He later accused radio stations and retailers of blacklisting his album, Graffiti, leading to the lowest sales of his career.

#1. R Kelly Allegedly Makes A Sex Tape With A 14-year-old Girl



The R. produced, wrote, and sang “Be Careful” with his artist, Sparkle in ‘98. Ten years later, she'd testify during his child pornography trial that the girl having sex with him in a heavily bootlegged video was her 14-year-old niece. Originally sent to the Chicago Sun-Times by an anonymous source, the footage contains what appears to be tossing salad, a golden shower (later to be ingeniously spoofed by Dave Chappelle), and R. giving the girl money. Be careful, indeed.


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