Architects of the Atlanta sound
Organized Noize
A decade before this city became the crunk, snap, and trap capital of the world, the sound of Atlanta was defined by the excavated funk … »more
Atlanta's longest-running nonstop dance-or-be-damned party
Backstreet Atlanta
For 30 years, Backstreet Atlanta was the city's best-known all-hours nightclub. More than a gay disco, it was a landmark of Atlanta's sanctified underbelly and … »more
Atlanta's original avant guardians
Hampton Grease Band
In the beginning, there was the Hampton Grease Band — a gang of oddball Southern blues rockers with one wiry frontman, Bruce Hampton, who stepped … »more
Best artist overall
Killer Mike
Killer Mike remembers when he and his friends first heard N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton. "We were waiting for this record we'd heard about that had … »more
Best Atlanta-based music blog
Maurice Garland
Name-dropping Southern hip-hop has become something of a hipster commodity on a national level in recent years, but nobody covers the music and the scene … »more
Best beatmaker-turned-boss
Mike Will Made It
For 23-year-old producer Mike Will Made It, nothing says success like having Diddy talk mega-shit on your behalf. But after his swaggering introduction on Will's … »more
Best blues album
Black Cat Oil
This year, Delta Moon released Black Cat Oil, the Atlanta group's seventh and most transcendent offering in an already respectable catalog. The collision of Tom … »more
Best creepy new band
deadCAT
When deadCAT unleashed "Rosie O'Donnell" via Bandcamp last October, the song seemed like the kind of noisy side project that might result from a late … »more
Best debut performance
Night Sun
Back in November 2011, Black Lips singer/guitarist Cole Alexander and former Cee Lo Green collaborator Curtis Harding unveiled their spooky, low-fi soul project Night Sun … »more
Best DJ for a drunken sing-along
Sofa King Evil
Sofa King Evil's idea of a killer transition: segueing from Lil Wayne's Sir Mix-A-Lot reference in "The Motto" ("Oh my God, Becky/look at her butt") … »more
Best dopegirl on the wheels of steel
Speakerfoxxx
When Speakerfoxxx released her sophomore mixtape, Dopegirl Anthems, in March via Yelawolf's Slumerican imprint, she unveiled an hour-long mix of crunk, gangsta, and trap rap, … »more
Best electro ghetto technician
heRobust
The synth-laden soundscapes of heRobust have given Atlanta an earful in 2012. The young electronic producer Hayden Kramer merged his soulful glitch with jazzy melodies … »more
Best emigrant-turned-essential local DJ
Kid Cedek
After Kid Cedek moved here three years ago, he learned to spin the electro, dubstep, and trap to which Atlantans are accustomed. But he also … »more
Best experimental act
Faun and a Pan Flute
Best known for orchestrating layers of winding and bucolic rhythms that evoke equal parts Can's hypnotic rhythms and the Grateful Dead's hippie-dippie ways, Faun and … »more
Best hardcore band
Bukkake Boys
It feels wrong to simply label Bukkake Boys a hardcore band — especially at a time when permutations and microgenres have strangled the life out … »more
Best industry impresario-slash-big-sis-to-the-stars
Malissa "Mali" Hunter
Rarely does a professional recording studio earn a side rep as a premier comfort food destination. Thanks to Malissa "Mali" Hunter, Tree Sound Studios is … »more
Best metal band
Royal Thunder
When Royal Thunder released its eponymous EP in 2009, there was an unmistakable air of something powerful burning within its thick, Zeppelin-esque grooves. Three years … »more
Best movement in the making
Two9
If the children are the future, Two9 is a harbinger of hell to pay. And no, that's not a backhanded compliment. Like Los Angeles' Odd … »more
Best new advocate for Atlanta's avant-garde
Primitive Patterns
Over the last year Adam Babar has quietly laid the foundation for an experimental musical legacy with his self-run Primitive Patterns label. Whether it be … »more
Best new venue
Terminal West
Outside, its bouncers are smiling. Inside, its three bars supply 25 different beers. Terminal West is now Robert Shaw and Alan Sher's dream venue, built … »more
Best perennial soul stirrer
DJ Kemit
Based on his output over the course of the last year, it would be hard not to recognize DJ Kemit as one of the city's … »more
Best rap reinvention
2 Chainz
As Tity Boi, he clung to parts of his past with a familial nickname-turned-rap moniker — meaning "that momma's boy kind of swag," as he … »more
Best secret soul weapon
Algebra Blessett
It's a sad fact that Atlantans sometime take homegrown talent for granted. Case in point: soul singer Algebra Blessett. For more than a decade, Algebra's … »more
Best songwriter
Adron
When Adron unveiled Organismo last November, the album boasted her fairy-tale charm and whimsical intonations, but her trademark style had been repurposed with a focused … »more
Best soul album
Clementine Sun
In early 2012, bassist/producer Khari Cabral (aka Khari Simmons) stepped away from Jiva, the band he founded in the late 1990s, and released his first … »more
Best trap ambassador-at-large
Daniel Disaster
With a bio that boasts, "We're only interested in making music you can fight or strip to," Daniel Disaster, the DJ, producer, and driving force … »more
