Lamar Odom and his L.A. Lakers are in the midst of their round two series in the NBA Playoffs, but in the back of his mind he's looking forward to the summer as well. Odom is planning going full steam ahead with his record label Rich Soil Entertainment this summer with the release of Ali Vegas' debut album, Generation Gap 2: The Prequel, an album a few years in the making. The album will hit stores in August featuring production from DJ Premier, Scott Storch, Cool & Dre, and Midi Mafia with appearances from Akon, Styles P and singer Deemi.

"One of my focuses was to get Ali Vegas the best music because that seems to be what captures people's ear automatically," Odom recently told AllHipHop.com. "And [I'll] just let Veg do the rest. He's playing at a high skill level. The faith that we got in him is just... I mean I think he could take off right where Jay-Z and Nas left off. I think he's that talented."

The album will come out in a partnership with Asylum Records. Ali Vegas, at only 24 years old, is a sort of veteran of the rap game, first stepping on the scene as a teenager in the late 90's and early 2000's. While signed to Columbia, he recorded an album that was never released and then fell into the underground hip-hop scene where he's been hustling mixtapes for the last several years. Looking Vegas' situation, Odom decided to try to make a move and see if he could do what other record labels couldn't do and make Ali Vegas a superstar.

"I always been close to rap music, because of Ali," Odom said. "When I got traded, I just started to get visions and ideas because of the star power that the Lakers have and because Ali is so great at what he does. I just got all these ideas, all these visions, and I just kinda thought, 'Maybe I should do it myself.' So I just put the right people, just found the right people to put around myself. It's something that I wasn't afraid to fail at, at all. I guess not being afraid to fail let me know that I can get this done."

Let's see if Odom and the Lakeshow can hold off the Utah Jazz first!