Local Hip-Hop Beat Battle Unites Community and Local Creatives: Here’s What Happened at 2024’s Crush Congregation

From the Central Valley to the Bay Area, hip-hop artists gathered at the Modesto State Theater to showcase their creativity and music production skills at the second annual Crush Congregation, also known as Crush Con.

This year’s Crush Con featured fourteen featured musicians, which included: Ray V, DDropsBeats, Doni Blu, TPillz, K.O., TeseBeatz, TOONWRLD, Clouded Kings, Bennett Vickery, DoomDaWiz, Dripwork, Mayflwr95, ChefSt, Jmmy Jmmy.

The event consisted of a tournament-style competition in which artists were required to make original, one-minute-long tracks featuring samples provided by the event’s sponsors.

These tracks were played in front of a live audience and were voted for by local music producers seated in the audience. Artists would advance to the next round after obtaining the popular vote, or they would be eliminated.

Stephen Cowdrey was one of this year’s featured artists and has been DJing since 2010. Living in Modesto, one of his favorite things about being involved in the music community is meeting new people.

When asked what advice he’d give to fellow artists, Cowdrey said: “Don’t quit making art. I mean as an artist, you go into a period where you’re like, ‘I should probably quit. I should probably quit taking pictures. I should probably drop out of journalism school.’ but just don’t do it.”

Stephen was also accompanied by his mother, JoAnn Cowdrey, who was excited to support Stephen during his performance.

When asked what advice she’d give to other parents whose children are artists, she said: “Support them – go to their events, encourage them.”

Artists King Tut, and DJ Shaabi of the group Outlyrz came all the way from Fresno to come out to the event to support their friend, Phil the Artist, who was performing in the show. All three of them were excited to hear fellow artists’ beats and see the events of the night unfold.

When asked what they were most excited about, King Tut shared his perspectives regarding the turnout and local support.

“Probably just seeing everybody come together in the love of hip hop, I mean, in a small town like this, you wouldn’t expect such a high turn out. But they did have a great turnout last year as well,” King Tut said. “But it’s good to see it keep going. And they just introduced a new talent, and as we kind of just keep growing and growing as a hip hop community out here in California in the small towns, I think it’s a beautiful thing.”

DJ Shaabi encouraged people to tap into their local creative communities.

“Support local hip-hop, support everybody that is talented over here, support everybody that wants to be talented. It is really important to see all of us, and see all of you guys, supporting all of us,” he said.

Joel Aguilar was another event attendee and a Central Valley local mural artist. Aguilar shared that he came to support a friend participating in the beat battle; he noted that he also attended last year’s Crush Con, in which he appreciated the loud volume and bass.

Aguilar also noted the importance of having creative-based events similar to Crush Con.

“We’re all really good at our craft, but it’s always nice to have that competition to see what the community can see and what we can bring to the table,” he said, “It’s just good to see all these other creatives and all these musicians come together and kind of show their craft, their passion.”

Patricia Pratt and Anthony Gonzalez are also artists native to the Central Valley, coming to the show together from Merced. Both Pratt and Gonzalez were excited to see how this year’s music would turn out.

Pratt shared that she had attended last year’s iteration of the event and is also a long time friend with one of the event organizers, Joe Zimmerer.

“We’ve been friends for probably 20 years working together, so I’m out here to support him,” Pratt said. “Then some of our friends are part of the beat battle from Merced… I’m excited to see the diversity in the way that they’re going to use the songs against each other.”

The night’s events were kicked off by a slam-poetry artist and Modesto Artist Movement Poetry Ambassador, Angela Drew. During her opening slam-poetry performance, she highlighted the power and platform hip-hop provides for artists:

“They stepped to the mic, 79 was just right. Spoken word, plus a beat equals rapper’s delight. It was hip-hop; for love, hip-hop…it was born out of love, out of necessity, they stayed within the living circle, and now it’s back to me,” she recited, “Spoken word is a movement, hip-hop is a movement. People start going, perpetual motion – hip hop coming through, rebirth anew in the bosom of the true spoken word.”

After Drew’s opening words, the first round of musicians were assessed, narrowing down the competitors to four competing duos.

After a brief intermission, guest artist Weezmatic, an artist from San Jose, made an appearance to perform a live set of his music.

After his set, the contest continued, in which the two remaining finalists were chosen: DoomDaWiz and TOON WRLD. As a means to select this year’s Crush Con champion, the finalists were tasked with performing a five minute long beat set.

Through it all, TOONWRLD was voted the official winner of the 2024 Congregation Crush Beat Battle.

Joseph Zimmerer was Crush Con’s planner and emcee and has been planning this event since last January; he was really grateful for this year’s turnout.

Zimmerer stated: “To be honest, I think that the community speaks for itself when they come out and support an event like this.”

When asked what advice he’d give to fellow creatives aspiring to get involved in the field, Zimmerer said:

“I would just say search for it. If you don’t know what it is yet, keep searching, and when you find that passion, it gives you a purpose. I go do tile work and I get off work, and then I work for hours on my passion because it literally is what I care about. It’s enabled me to throw an event like this and be a part of my community and inspiration, hopefully, and motivating others to keep doing what they’re doing… And I want to keep creating events and building relationships.”

Orlando Molina, another event emcee, was grateful for this year’s turnout. Molina noted the impact the event would have on the local community.

“I think we need to see positive hip-hop outlets because on the news, you still see people being on the Percocets, or getting shot at a house party or the crazy drill rap – and that’s all about violence and gangs and stuff,” he said. “So to see breaking it and live beats and seeing moms here, there’s grandma’s here, it’s like every age range is here. It shows the positive side of hip hop.”

When asked what advice to give to those looking to get involved in creative industries, Molina said:

“Be yourself. Try not to copy people. If you copy a trend, by the time you’ve mimicked it perfectly, something new is cool.”

Sam Pierstorff, another emcee for this year’s Crush Con as well as the CEO of Modesto Artists Movement, came on stage to speak on behalf of the creatives located in the Central Valley, noting the importance of the arts.

“We put poets and we put comedians and we put hip-hoppers and filmmakers – we put them all together in this movement and we’re working together to create a better Modesto,” he said.