It’s that time, folks.

With 2016 officially out of the game and retired from life, we wanted to recap what was an incredible year musically, despite being such a crappy one in pretty much every other category.

To give it its proper farewell KarenCivil.com will be releasing our debate-inciting, Twitter finger-triggering year end lists this week to recap the biggest moments in hip-hop and our culture.

For the first list, we pay homage to the ones making the songs sound so good, the producers. Whether it was standout hitmakers like Metro Boomin or Mike WiLL Made It, or the silent assassins like Sonny Digital and Vinylz, this year was another success for hip-hop and R&B producers.

While there were tons to choose from, we’ve narrowed it down to what we consider the top 20 producers of 2016. Let’s just say, this was far from easy.