Wonder what the #1 major hip-hop label is cooking up for the Summer? I snuck into Def Jam’s secret safe, via telekinetic movement, to find out. Just for you. Here’s Def Jam’s Summer lineup for 2008.

• Karina – First Love – August 19th, 2008
  16 @ War is a solid single, but Def Jam’s latest songbird will have to drop an entire album’s worth of decent music to win me over.

• LL Cool J – Exit 13 – July 8th, 2008
  Uncle Todd is still bringing that fiyah!, even if his antics are getting a bit annoying.

• Nas – Nas – July 1st, 2008
  Nasir has already gathered significant momentum for this album, so anything short of a classic will probably dent his reputation.

• Ne-Yo – Year of the Gentleman – August 8th, 2008
  Another Ne-Yo album? Does anyone even remember the last one?

• Razah – Razah – July 8th, 2008
  Razah needs to give Rizoh a shout so we can do a collabo. We’ll have RZA produce it.

• Rihanna – Good Girl, Gone Bad [CD/DVD] Reloaded – June 17th, 2008
  I dug GGGB, but this is a blatant attempt to sell us the same thing twice. Boooo!

• Young Jeezy – The Recession – July 29th, 2008
  Yeeeeeaaah!

Which ones are you excited about?

I have nothing short of respect for uncle Todd (unlike Jim Jones, I don’t disrespect my elders). After all, LL is still No.1 on longevity. But longevity doesn’t sell records or earn you trophies in today’s battleground.

It wasn’t enough to blame Jay-Z for his last album, which tanked heavily, Cool J is now getting all emotional over Jay’s “billy the goat” line from “I Get Money (Forbes 1,2,3 Remix).”

Maybe someone needs to remind uncle Todd that:

1) While he’s definitely in the upper echelons, no one outside of his immediate family really bought into that GOAT claim
2) This isn’t 1987. That was 20 years ago.
3) Jay-Z is no Canibus. Not only is Hov ahead of today’s LL in all the vital categories (except longevity, of course), he’s also become a big enchilada in the game. So, blackballing Jay like he did ‘Bis is definitely not an option in 2007.

In any case, this should be an exciting one, assuming Jay agrees to play. He’s been reluctant about responding to shots lately.