The 13 in LL Cool J's latest LP represents the number of albums that he's recorded for Def Jam, the label he helped build from the ground up dating back to 1984. Much like Ice Cube and other aging hip-hop stars who have crossed over to mainstream celebrity, LL has little to prove but still plenty of talent to burn. As he says on "Get Over Here," "It ain't where ya from, it's how hot you are," and the man they call Todd Smith liberally borrows production styles from hip-hop's ever-expanding geography, while throwing in the occasional history lesson. Opener "Old School New School" is rousing and boastful, feeling awfully similar to a Kanye West cut off GRADUATION. He then heads down south for "Over Here"'s stutter-step bounce (and the phenomenal, drumline-centric "American Girl"), and goes literally global via the seductive Indian inflections of "I Fall In Love." But the highlight is "Ringtone M.," a minimalist track backed by a verse from genre pioneer Grandmaster Caz. EXIT 13 demonstrates that LL's influence has become genre- and era-blind, and as an MC, his flow is still as crisp, confident, and commanding as ever.