Welcome to our 2o12 list of the 11 HOTTEST music artists that rep the DC Metropolitan area.

We are not making a list of who we feel is the best, only who, in our opinion, had the best year. Hence, the emphasis on HOTTEST. Please note that there is no specific order this year.

The purpose of this list is to shine a light on the great talent coming out of the DMV and the amazing impact that they’ve made as “local” music artists over the the last year.

When we say local artist we just mean that they are from the area, not confined to it.

We decided to change it up this time and list music artists instead of just rappers so you will see a great diversity of singers and rappers, both signed and independent that have been making a name both within DC and beyond.

This list is based on who we felt had the made the most noise inside and outside the D.C. metropolitan area by way of buzzworthy shows, social media following, tours, videos, albums/mixtapes, singles, publicity, street buzz, industry co-signs and other music-related things that kept the artist’s name on the tip of everybody’s tongue in 2012.

Again, this is a list of artists who we feel had the hottest year so this is no slight to other artists who may have been named in the past or feel they should be on the list. The shift in format from just rappers to also include singers bumped many deserving rappers who had a more quiet year 2o12 than they did in 2011.