1. UGK & Slim Thug, Vicious & Middle Fingaz, "Take Tha Hood Back" (from Underground Kingz, Jive)
2. La Chat ft. Murphy Lee, "Do Ya Dance" (MP3, myspace.com/lachatrap)
3. Webbie ft. Boosie, "Independent" (from Savage Life 2, Trill/Asylum)
4. Gorilla Zoe ft. Young Jeezy, Big Boi & Trae, "Hood Nigga (Remix)" (from mixtape)
5. Big City, "Lick Balls" (from The City Never Sleeps, Nature Sounds)
6. USDA, "Live My Life" (from Young Jeezy Presents USDA: Cold Summer, Corporate Thugz Entertainment/Def Jam Records)
7. Charon Don & DJ Huggy ft. Rah Digga & Lil Scrappy, "Up in Here" (from Art Of Life, Good Hands Records)
8. Project Pat & Three 6 Mafia, "Don't Call Me No More" (from Walkin' Bank Roll, Koch Records/Hypnotize Minds)
9. Rocko, "Umma Do Me" (MP3, www.myspace.com/rockodadon)
10. Dj Khaled ft. T-Pain, Young Jeezy, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, Big Boi, Lil Wayne, Fat Joe, Birdman & Rick Ross, "I'm So Hood" (Remix) (from mixtapes)
11. O.C. & Marco Polo, "Marquee" (from Port Authority, Rawkus)
12. Lil' Keke ft. Scarface, "I'm a G (Remix)" (from http://allhiphop.com/stories/multimedia__music/archive/2007/12/20/19031057.aspx)
13. Three 6 Mafia ft. UGK, "On Sum Chrome" (from Last 2 Walk, Columbia/Sony/Hypnotize Minds)
14. B.O.B. ft. Juvenile and Rick Ross, "Haterz Everywhere (Remix)" (MP3, from http://www.myspace.com/bobatl)
15. Rich Boy, "Boy Looka Here" (from Rich Boy, Zone 4/Interscope)
16. T.I. ft. Alfa Mega & Busta Rhymes, "Hurt" (from T.I. vs. T.I.P., Grand Hustle/Atlantic)
17. Army of the Pharaohs, "Seven" (from Ritual of Battle, Babygrande)
18. Prodigy ft. Sean Price, "Rotten Apple" (from Master P, Bucktown U.S.A. Entertainment)
19. Eightball & MJG, "Turn Up the Bump" (from Ridin' High, Bad Boy South)
20. Soulja Boy, "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)" (from Soulja Boy Tell'Em, Interscope)

I wanted to fill this CD with all 18 versions of "Crank Dat" off the mixtape I copped this summer, but there was too much good shit this year to fuck around. It wasn't as triumphant a year for independent Atlanta rap as '06, when I subsisted on nothing but Big Shug and snap music, but talent spread across every hood to make up one of the richest 12 months in hip-hop since the crowded, brilliant mosaic of the late '90s.

Soulja Boy may rep Atlanta, but how many 13-year olds could tell you that? Summer tourism runs GA rap, and what's going on right now isn't exactly post-snap—it's just that snap infiltrated every other genre and cross-pollinated with Kilo/Shy D-style bass rap. Now there's lover-man snap, rock music snap, house snap, soul snap, whatever—all snap all the time. And the trap shit isn't even hot in ATL like the snap shit was—Jeezy and T.I. blew up. Any trap-rapper is on the rapping-about-rapping tip now—just as the darkness of Ready to Die lurked underneath Bad Boy's shiny-suit era, the bleak precision of the trap took a backseat to stadium coke-rap. Still, ATL was all over the map—from Jeezy's crew USDA dropping the unexpectedly reflective "Live My Life" to Eastsider B.O.B.'s frantic "Haterz Everywhere," a trancey, E'd-up post-Timbaland rave cut with Juvenile and Rick Ross.

In the underground, you had Big City, dudes from the Beatnuts making fake H-Town shit with some chick who sounds like old Junior M.A.F.I.A.-era Lil' Kim; Charon Don, an underground cat from Pittsburgh who somehow got Digga and Scrappy to drop verses on his joint; and Army of the Pharaohs—nine Philly MCs, ranging from nerd-ass braggadocio cats to hardcore Islamic philosophers, rocking it like "Protect Ya Neck." As for O.C., I just love some O.C.

Mims, the Alliance, Hurricane Chris, and Shop Boyz all dropped jams I played out, but the only one-hit wonder who was still fresh enough to me was the dude Rocko with the late fall ridin' joint, "Umma Do Me." It's testament to the fragmented nature of third coast rap that Miami's DJ Khaled had banger after banger with like 50 guest spots all over the map. "I'm So Hood" had every rapper you could name in the video—from Too $hort to Bushwick Bill—and almost as many dudes on the song. And some of the hottest songs of the year came from Mobile, Shreveport, and . . . Baton Rouge? Louisiana's Boosie and Webbie win every time, especially when kicking what might as well be "I Need A Hot Girl '07": "She cook, she clean, never smell like onion rings."

Ethan Padgett writes the Mean Muggin' column for Idolator. He lives in Atlanta.