Idolator

Hey, are you an LL Cool J fan? Are you sick of the bodysnatcher that took his place some time around 1995 and forced him to make the same wack-ass slow-jam over and over again? Did you hope that his recent intimation that he was beefing with his Def Jam label boss Shawn "Thank Christ I Have Rihanna" Carter might signal the return of the fierce, battle-rapping LL of old? Well, tough shit. Because while LL probably has enough industry clout to take shots at Jay without being wished into the hip-hop cornfield, he's instead decided to be a big pussy:

This is a time when everything's real," he continued. "You go on blogs and everything, people know when people are lying. Things are not all rosy up there [at Def Jam]. Too many [artists] have suffered: Method Man, Redman, the Roots, Fabolous, Ludacris! The list goes on. Nobody is getting promoted the way they should be promoted. I'm one man. I can't battle a whole record label. So we not gonna try to turn this into what it's not. To try and battle a record label is foolish. It's bad enough they are calling around to radio stations telling them not to play my records."

Well, you can't fight city hall. Or a legal contract you feel is being violated by your employer not living up to their end of the bargain. (Do labels actually call radio stations and threaten them if they're playing records by artists that the label is trying to sell? Is this that "new model" everyone's been touting? Maybe things really are as fucked up at Def Jam as folks in the media, those "blogs and everything," have been predicting.) As the head of a shaky ship under much scrutiny, Jay, for his part, seems to know that publically dissing LL would be ugly from a "shitty boss takes a shit on his employee" point of view:

Jay also denied the street talk that he and Cool J may soon be going at it on wax. "He's a legend," Jay said. "I'm not doing that."

C'mon, LL, he's almost showing some deference towards you. When was the last time you saw Jay-Z do that for anyone? It's the closest you're gonna get to "running scared" with this guy. Take a stand! Even if it's walking around with "Chump" written on your cheek, Prince-style.

LL Cool J Still Unhappy With Def Jam [MTV]