On the eve of the 4th of July Holiday, this is a perfect time to reflect on the first six months of the year, and pay respect to the best in hip hop so far. There are plenty of big names due to drop the second half of the year, including new albums from Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Raekwon, and Kanye West, along with the anticipated debut of Drake.

Song of the Year So Far – Jay-Z “D.O.A”
It’s crazy that D.O.A hasn’t even been out a month, but literally had the internet going nuts the first weekend of June,and ever since. Jay originally said this wouldn’t even be a single, but a B-side to the first official single off Blueprint 3, but he performed it at the BET Awards, and dropped a video. Not bad for a mixtape track.

Mixtape of the Year So Far – J.Cole “The Warm Up”
Before the Drake fans get upset, “So Far Gone” was dropped in 2008. There have been plenty of good mixtapes released by artists and DJ’s thus far, but “The Warm Up” displayed the growth and maturity of the young RocNation artist in a very unique way.

Retail Album of the Year So Far – Mos Def “The Eclectic”
This was one of the tougher categories to decide, as The Relapse and The Eclectic were neck and neck among the best thus far. In the end, Mos Def gets the nod in my view.

Video of the Year So Far – Kanye West x Rihanna – Paranoid
The video that leaked weeks before it was “finished” was one of the more unique concepts thus far. The timing of it(during Chris Brown’s legal woes) made it even more interesting.

R&B Song of the Year So Far – Jeremiah “Birthday Sex”

I could easily make a post about how Plies’ questionable content or failed reality TV show didn’t jump off as planned, but there is enough hate going on around the net. Fact is, since the start of 2007, the brotha has released 3 studio albums, and earlier this week, he announced plans to drop “Becky”, his fourth, this September. The Real Testment, which dropped in August 2007, went gold. Definition of Real was released ten months later, and struggled to reach the gold status of his debut. Da REALest was dropped just six months after that, and that, too, struggled to break 200,000 sales. While many rappers are cranking out mixtapes at the speed Plies drops retail albums, has the recipe helped him solidify his career? Only time will tell.

This Friday’s Top 5 list took me a while to compile. Trying to narrow down the five best album covers ever meant some of the best actual musical albums would not be included. Some of these covers made the list due to their creativity at the time they came out, while others had a much deeper artistic message than even the lyrical content that was on the album itself.

Check these out, and tell us what you think!

Note: Album covers in no particular order…

Common – Like Water For Chocolate

A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Maruders

Ice Cube – Death Certificate

Nas – Illmatic

DMX – Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood

Honorable Mention: ODB(Return of the 36 Chambers Dirty Version), 2Pac(All Eyez On Me), Little Brother(The Minstrel Show), Notorious B.I.G(Ready 2 Die), N.W.A(Niggaz4Life)

With the recent word that R&B artist Omarion and Philly’s own Freeway were heading to Cash Money Records, one can’t help to be be remembered of the early days of Bad Boy and Roc-A-Fella. The centerpiece of the situation is a young rapper who has the game on lock(Lil Wayne), and he is surrounded by good(not great) artists who can eat off the affiliation for a while. You mix in a few artists who used to be on their own, but now are getting with the “new hot movement”, and Young Money/Cash Money could become the next major force in the game.

When you look at Roc-A-Fella, the team of Jay-Z and Dame Dash carefully added artists to the label to broaden their reach, as Jay’s personal career rose. The same blueprint could be said of Wayne and Cash Money. With his affiliation with Drake, and artists like Nicky Manaj, Tyga,Gudda Gudda, and Jae Millz on the roster, the future is certainly bright. How big can the label get? That remains to be seen…

• sex sex and more sex

now, that doesnt mean sleep with him 5 minutes after you meet him. unless thats your thing (no judgement)..but healthy conversation about fantasies and turn ons are OK! its harmless, and it sparks curiosity, which leads to open ended questions and now your having fun talk about what you two both really want but are easing into but with all the pleasantries first. and when your ready to let him do that “thang”, skip the romance, please and thank you, this is NOT your one year anniversary. slow music, rose petals..wine..candles, its nice, but dont confuse sexy with SEX. go for it, dont plan it by “setting the mood”, get naked and fuck. guys like aggression and women who know what they want. act like an adult for once !

• be realistic

of course your are his lady friend and not one of the guys, but it is all the way ok to do things with him that are more favorable for him, than yourself..chances are, the kind of girl(s) he’s already dealing with are girls who are dragging him all over the mall, making him hold their purse and shit, trips to the nail shop..uh..go to a sports bar, get tipsy, dance, laugh out loud, over eat, touch, laugh some more, chill out and relax. its not always about you, especially when your trying to get him. -wink-

• fuck her(s)

ok this is the hardest one ladies. all of us are guilty of this. asking about who else he is dating, or how close he is with his baby moms is like a fuss waiting to happen. its a mood killer, and a dick softener. i know we can let the curiosity get the best of us..but all we REALLY need to know is, if he has a girlfriend, wife or fiance. if the answer is no, he is community property. may the highest bidder win.

FYI, if a man is in a committed relationship, ladies, please, walk away, quickly. its not worth the headache or the fucked up view from the backseat-because thats exactly where you will be sitting, behind the girlfriend, she will always be shotgun and will always come first despite what he may tell you. oh and more importantly, never fight over what is NOT rightfully yours. if he is not in an exclusive relationship, no girl should be throwing bows over him, feeling salty or crying a river. your an option before your a priority.

so, BE sexual, sexy, confident, fun and real. clingy, emotional, nagging and insecure is what will get you left and not right.

DISCLAIMER: yes im still single, but you know the saying: those who CANT, teach.

Read More from Brook on WeLoveHipHop.com in the coming weeks, and on her official website, AbsoluteBrook.com

Check out links from some stories catching my eye today around the net, including video of Keri Hilson’s stage show after the jump…

RollingOut.com brings you this:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Robin Givens Owes the IRS 229,000
Beat Down Chris Brown finally breaks his silence
C-Murder is goin to jail for a long time
The NBA Wants The Cavs To Make The Finals
Drake says Kanye influenced his style. Captain Obvious Statement of the Day…

WTF Wednesday continues with Officer Ricky’s baby mama, Tia, gracing the cover of Essence Magazine. How did she go from this:

to this:

Her 15 minutes of fame gotta be up soon!

I wasn’t gonna post this bullshit video at first, but after seeing the video last week for the first time, I am now starting to hear it more and more on the radio(more reason why I hate radio), and see youtube has about 12,545 renditions of Whooty Girls. The Summer of 2009 may have it’s first “hit” to commercial rap lovers everywhere.

In case you haven’t seen it, check out the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kanye West joined up with Malice and Pusha T of The Clipse over the Memorial Day weekend to film the video for their latest single, “Kinda Like A Big Deal”. Check the photos…

The world knows him as Jay-Z, a.k.a Shawn Corey Carter. Fans know him for his masterful storytelling flow, hypnotic beats and production, and trend setting swagger that keeps New York, and the rest of the hip hop world on it’s toes. As Jay has grown older, his moves have been more deliberate and calculated. With the recent news that he is now a free agent, we may see something that few would have expected from the artist that dropped tracks like this back in the day:

Nearly 20 years after that video with former mentor and friend Jaz-O, Jay is on the verge of closing a $150 Million dollar business venture with LiveNation, that will allow Jay to take his Roc Nation brand, and make it the next Motown Records. The deal will allow Jay to start his own music label under Roc Nation, along with other companies that focus on music publishing, artist consultation, and management. For those not familiar with LiveNation, the company was formed in 2005, and has made their money in the promotion of concerts for various artists they work with. Their entry into being an actual record label could potentially shake up the entire industry, as heavyweights like Sony, Universal, and Warner all could be following a trendsetter, instead of being one.

Many artists out now have branched off of just rhyming to venture into other projects. Some have invested into well known brands, such as part ownership in professional teams(Nelly with the Charlotte Bobcats), while others have focused on products that their core base would purchase, like clothing lines. Jay has been there and done that with all of the above. His ability to buy out his last album from Island/Def Jam for $5 Million dollars is a small price to pay for the artistic and creative freedom he will now enjoy.

Will we see other artists attempt to land similar deals with other companies? Only time will tell. In Hip Hop, there are very few that could attempt to do something as big as that, and not be a complete failure at it. While the industry has taken a beating over the past decade with retail albums being leaked on the internet, the artists and labels that have adapted to the new digital age are flourishing. Those that have remained stagnant are going backwards fast. Long after Sean Carter hangs up his microphone for good, his legacy on the game will remain. At the end of the day, artists struggling to develop their own unique brand should stop, look, and study the moves that Hov has made. They could learn a thing or two.