Lil Jon had a master plan: Introducing two new artists’ albums together on one CD. Although he was never really feeling the idea,  Lil Scrappy has more than made the best of the situation. Fresh off his first hit record, the ATL crunkster is ready for more solo acclaim.

Don’t you love Atlanta?”

Crunk prodigy Lil Scrappy spreads his arms out wide in a mock embrace of the gray Georgia sky. It’s a rainy fall afternoon at Malibu Grand Prix, an entertainment complex just outside the city that features Indy 500-style racetracks, miniature golf, batting cages and an arcade. The question, directed at no one in particular, hangs in the air—a critique of the day’s weather, but a show of pride in the town Scrap lovingly refers to as “The A.” It’s the kind of love that inspired songs like “F.I.L.A.” (Forever I Love Atlanta) from this summer’s breakout set The King Of Crunk & BME Recordings Present: Lil Scrappy & Trillville, which bundled ten songs each from Scrappy and fellow BME artists Trillville on the same CD. And no doubt Scrap’s ATL affection will shine on his upcoming solo album, Bred To Die, due out early next year.

Dressed in a red, blue and gray warm-up suit and a chunky medallion chain bearing his BME record label’s shark logo, Scrappy is glad to be back in his hometown. He’s just returned from a performance in Savannah, 250 miles to the southeast, the night before and is in need of a break—even if it does entail a little PR work. Today’s outing comes compliments of MTV2, which sponsored an online contest awarding a day with Lil Scrappy and Trillville as the grand prize. The winners, Cicely Carroll, 24, and Renotua White, 25, are savoring this moment with their favorite rapper, who, upon his arrival, immediately melts the girls’ nervous anticipation with a warm hug and an invitation to hit the grand prix track.

“Man, I ain’t been here since I was like 10 years old,” he mutters, shaking his head like a man far older than his 20 years of age.

At the starting line, Scrappy straps himself into the mini-speedracer alongside a smiling Cicely sitting shotgun. At the sound of the starting signal, Scrappy floors the accelerator, sending his vehicle out ahead of the pack. For the next 20 minutes, as the would-be Dale Earnhardt whips around the roadway’s dips and curves, he looks like he’s having an even better time than his passenger.

Scrappy likes his job. And he takes it seriously. He works hard every day, whatever the agenda, and applies the same focus to whatever task’s at hand. It’s not always easy, he says, but he stays grounded, keeps things in perspective, and gets the job done.

“Rapping is easy,” says Scrappy. “Doing shows is easy. The difficult thing is dealing with people while you’re doing it all. You won’t find an artist that don’t be tired, and then they gotta deal with people. So you gotta be strong for this business. You gotta be able to have a smile on your face and have a sound mind while you’re going through it.”

Surprising maturity coming from the feisty young fellow known for penning hooks like “We some head bussas/We some head bussas/We’ll knock a hater out/We some head bussas.” But Scrappy isn’t always the amped-up, quick-tempered brawler his image portrays.

“In life you learn to calm down some,” he says, philosophically. “You’ll never get no where if you’re always like that. I mean you can be hot-tempered like a muthafucka, but if you don’t have no balance in your shit, you don’t have no brain power.”

Scrappy applies this wisdom—hard-won through a rough childhood—to all aspects of his career. While he’s been garnering a lot of attention lately from the bass-heavy chart-topper, “No Problem” (produced by BME founder and aforementioned crunk king, Lil Jon), the early success hasn’t gone to his head.

“It doesn’t matter how many songs you make,” he says. “Until people like that one song, that’s when they show you love. So I don’t too much be like, ‘Oh, they love me now.’ I just made a hit record. People like it or whatever, so I gotta make another one. I ain’t taking it in like I’m the best muthafucka in the world.”