Rumors Circulate About Jay-Z's Successor

As previously reported, Jay-Z announced on Christmas Eve that he would not be returning to his post as President of Def Jam records in the new year. According to MTV, there is a short, but star-studded list of possible successors. This list includes...

Irv Gotti
Chaka Zulu (Ludacris's manager)
Diddy
LL Cool J
Russell Simmons
Tracey Waples (marketing for Bad Boy and, later, Def Jam)
50 Cent
Michael Williams (former OutKast manager)

Jay-Z had previously called himself an "artist-friendly executive," however LL Cool J was particularly critical of this assertion. He told MTV:

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.