Nearly 25 years since he first burst onto the scene, LL Cool J continues his vibrant, trailblazing career with the release of Exit 13 - his appropriately titled 13th and final album.

Exit 13 is packed with both explosive in-your face and suave tracks, and features collaborations with 50 Cent, Richie Sambora and Wyclef Jean, and producers like Suits, DJ Scratch and Raw Uncut. With all that crammed onto one album, you can bet it's exactly what you've been waiting for - passion, braggadocio and smooth rhymes.

Check out the video for his new single 'Baby' featuring The Dream now at llcoolj.com!!

Check out Ne-Yo's latest track 'Miss Independent' from the new album Year Of The Gentleman, dropping September 16th.

Head over to Ne-Yo's blog yearofthegentleman.com to hear the brand new track!!! And make sure you leave a comment and let Ne-Yo know if you like the new song!

You can also check out Ne-Yo's recent Yahoo Live performances! Click HERE!

Even though his new album, The Renaissance, won't be hitting stores until October, The Abstract Poet, aka Mr. Q-Tip, threw down hard last weekend with the original Tribe Called Quest crew. With Phife Diggy droppin' verses, Mr. Mohammed on the decks, and even Jarobi hyping the crowd proper-like, ATCQ, led by Q-Tip, showed thousands of fans why they were billed as the main headliners. Nasty Nas, Rakim, Meth & Red, De La, Mos, The Pharcyde, and several others rocked the mic as well, but none had the crowd singing along quite like the original Questers. One of the set highlights included Tip treating the crowd to a few solo bits, including 'Vivrant Thing' from his last solo project, and his latest head-nod smasher, 'Gettin' Up', which you'll be able to grab on the new album in just a couple of short months.

In the meantime, get your Q-Tip fix and listen to 'Gettin' Up' in advance at myspace.com/qtip. Lyrically, he's Mario Andretti on the MOMO.

Make sure you're close to your computer, and dialed in to mtv.com/ontv/fn-mtv on August 1st - that is, if you want to see the world premier of the new video, 'Shawty Say', the latest by David Banner (this time pairing up with Lil Wayne)! If you haven't yet peeped the new album, The Greatest Story Ever Told, you'd be well advised to give it a listen, since it's blowing up the spot most everywhere! With Banner recently hosting BET's 106 & Park, and holding strong on Punch Much, you'll definitely want to see what all the hype is about.

For more info, and tons of pics and vids, check david-banner.com and myspace.com/davidbanner. Stuntin' is a habit.

Nas' highly anticipated Untitled new album is up for pre-order on iTunes Canada and features guest appearances from The Game, Busta Rhymes and Chris Brown as well as production from DJ Green Lantern, Polow Da Don and Mark Ronson among others. When you pre-order today, you will get a bonus track from the Untitled album - which hits stores on July 15th! You can also grab the first single 'Hero' now on iTunes. For even more Nas, check him out when he's performing in the Toronto and Montreal areas on July 20th and 22nd respectively.

Singer, songwriter and entertainer Lloyd returns with his third effort, Lessons In Love on August 5th. His new album is charged by the hard-driving single 'Girls Around The World' featuring Lil Wayne. Enlisting some of today's hottest producers and artists including Ludacris and Nelly, Lessons In Love displays Lloyd's continued maturity as an artist and varies in subject matter from physical lust to true love. The album also includes notable tracks 'How We Do It (Around The Way)', 'Party All Over Your Body' and 'Lose Control'.

Lessons In Love Available August 5th!

Be sure to check out Lloyd in Toronto for a performance at Circa on July 23rd!

Is stuntin' a habit of yours? Then you need to get like David Banner this Tuesday, when the new album (The Greatest Story Ever Told) drops! It features the hit single 'Get Like Me (Stuntin' Is A Habit)', with guest vocals by Chris Brown and Young Joc. The rest of the album boasts appearances by Weezy, Snoop Dogg, Akon, T.I., Carl Thomas, Jim Jones, Chamillionaire, Jazze Pha, and more - basically, every MC ever born is on this album. And even though we Canadians can't vote in the upcoming US election, it's worth noting that Banner IS running for US public office.

Check out some of Banner's campaign videos...
Secretary of Health & Human Services
Secretary of Education
Secretary of Homeland Security

What's your most memorable summer? Maybe you haven't had it yet! Well get ready, cause the summer of 2008 is just about to heat up. Universal Urban, Cineplex, Nokia, Xbox, Red tag.ca, Aquaswiss and Converse have teamed up to make this summer hotter than ever! We're talking the best of the best albums dropping. Lil Wayne Tha Carter III, N*E*R*D Seeing Sounds, G-Unit Terminate On Sight, The Game L.A.X. and of course our main man Kardinal Offishall Not 4 Sale just to name a few. And it's about to get even hotter... you could enter to win a prize pack worth over 10G's! Now if that's not a hot summer, I don't know what is. Make sure to log on to getmusic.ca/dearsummer to get all the "Dear Summer" contest details.

Text HOT to 32123 to get all the hottest summertime tones from the hottest artists on the streets and enter to win!

You might have seen N.E.R.D. opening for Kanyeezy recently on the Glow In The Dark Tour and said to yourself: "Self, it's safe to assume that multi-hyphenate media superstar Pharrell Williams rarely sleeps. He's got clothing lines, shoe brands, produces other peoples' records, produces his OWN records under different personas and is pretty much ubiquitous on the interwebs. Everywhere you look, there's Pharrell." And you'd be right, if a little crazy cause you're all talking to yourself and stuff.

But... hey look now... it's a new N.E.R.D. record hitting stores all over the universe June 10th - featuring the uber-catchy 'Everyone Nose'. You know the one: "All the girls standin' in the line for the bathroom..." and repeat several times while leaping from one foot to the other like a crazed leprechaun (are there any other kind, really?)

Aaaanyway, grab the single @ iTunes now and get prepped for some rad bathroom-related hip-pop fun. What kind of fun? Simply use your imaginations... but don't strain too hard - as a wise man once said, you'll blow out your O-ring.

Janet has officially announced her "Rock With U" North American tour! And while only a handful of dates have been revealed, the good news is that there are Canadian shows. In fact, the tour is set to kick off at Vancouver's GM Place on September 10th! After that, she is off to the Bell Center in Montreal on September 29th, before making her way to Toronto's Air Canada Center on October 13th. Stay tuned for details!

Lil' Wayne is finally ready to drop the third installment of the Carter series on June 10th. This highly anticipated album has been pushed back for 6 months now! But don't get it twisted, it's not like Weezy F. Baby has been out of the limelight; he's been dropping mixtapes religiously, appearing on almost everyone's singles and doing joint collaboration albums with Baby (Cash Money) and most recently Juelz Santana (Dip Set). Initially planned to be released in 2007, Tha Carter III's largest delay came after the majority of the tracks were leaked and distributed on mixtapes, such as The Drought Is Over Pt. 2 and The Drought Is Over Pt. 4. Wayne decided to use the leaked tracks, plus four new tracks, to make a separate album, titled The Leak - EP. The first single off the album 'Lollipop', featuring Static Major has been burning up the charts. Make sure you go pick up that album Tha Carter III when it drops June 10th, and bare witness to the fact that Lil Wayne aka Weezy F. Baby just might be the best rapper alive.

Grammy award winning Ashanti is no stranger to the game when it comes to R&B. In fact, she's been somewhat of a role model since her 2001 chart debut as a featured artist on the #1 Smash hit 'Always On Time' alongside Ja Rule. From there, when she finally dropped Ashanti, the album entered the charts at # 5 and #1 on the R&B charts that year. But that was just the beginning. Ashanti went on to become the only artist since the Beatles to have her first 3 singles chart in the Top 10 simultaneously! Now on the cusp of releasing her 5th studio album entitled The Declaration, Ashanti puts it all on the line in the powerfully soulful and dramatic first single 'The Way That I Love You'. Already burning up the radio charts and on steady rotation at your local video station, The Declaration is set to prove that Ashanti is a force to be reckoned with. So make sure you mark down June 3rd on your calendars.

For more fun, be sure to peep the Ashanti-gram below.
thewaythatiloveyou.com

The wait is almost over people! After four years, your #1 soul girl Erykah Badu is treating us with a new album entitled New Amerykah-Part 1 (4th World War) set to be released February 26th! This day not only marks the return of one of R&B/ Soul's most talented singer/ songwriters, but it's also Erykah's birthday, which makes it all that more special! The first single off the album is called Honey and is produced by 9th Wonder (Jay Z, Little Brother). Ms. Badu explains the track as being "an old school track with some funk on it"�, and gives the listener a truly refreshing sound amidst all the mainstream-club driven R&B tracks out there today.

The video which was directed by Chris Robinson and co-directed by Erykah takes place in a record store in which Erykah goes through racks of music discovering creative renditions of vinyl cover art for artists including Eric B and Rakim, Diana Ross, Grace Jones, Minnie Riperton, Chaka Khan, Nas, The Beatles, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Ohio Players and Patti Labelle with let's just say... her own Erykah Badu flair! Hats off to Chris Robinson and Ms. Badu for a job well done on this creative and innovative music video.

Another song to look out for on the album is 'The Healer/Hip Hop', Erykah's dedication to the late J Dilla, produced by Madlib. Although she may have been out of the scene for a minute, one thing is for certain... Erykah Badu is coming back to claim what's hers. Stay tuned to UniversalUrban.com as we bring you more news on New Amerykah-Part 1 (4th World War)!

Check out Erykha Badu's teaser music video, Honey.