A hip-hop battle like you’ve never seen before is happening in the 414.
Hip-Hop Week MKE and Breaking And Entering are teaming up for the Hip Hop Week Beat Battle. The event, which kicked off yesterday, features tournament-style battles taking place at a different location each day.
Yesterday, the top eight competitors from this year’s Big Beat MKE beat battle battled it out at The Cooperage, where they were judged by legendary hip hop producer 9th Wonder. Along with judging the competition, 9th Wonder performed a set afterwards.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
The winners from the battles on Tuesday night will move on to the finals at The Rave on Wednesday, which will be judged by none other than Griselda Records producer The Conductor. The Conductor has worked with the likes of Benny The Butcher, Conway The Machine, Westside Gunn and more. The Conductor will also take the stage to perform at the conclusion of the finals. Also set to perform after the finals is Benny the Butcher, Kia Rap Princess and DJ Topher.
“It’s going to be exciting to see these producers compete on a high level, on a stage in front of nationally and internationally recognized talent,” Allen Halas, owner of Breaking and Entering said.
Breaking and Entering began as a website for Milwaukee Music in 2014. The website has done different things within the Milwaukee hip-hop community over the year, such as its yearly tournament, Big Beat MKE and a few others.
In 2018, Milwaukee became the first U.S. city to designate an official Hip-Hop week, thus bringing the birth of Hip Hop Week MKE.
Over the past few years, Breaking And Entering and Hip Hop Week MKE have worked together in different capacities, partnering on things such as showcases and concerts. This year though, when Halas hit up Hip Hop Week MKE to discuss possible collaborations, Hip Hop Week MKE told Breaking And Entering that they already had 9th Wonder coming to town, so the two eventually came to the agreement that he could judge and perform at a beat battle tournament.
“I’ve long believed that Milwaukee has a very talented music scene of all genres, but to be able to have a platform like hip hop week is great to showcase what we can with the local music scene,” Halas said.
Generally, hip hop week attracts national artists to come to Milwaukee, but my role is essentially to make sure that Milwaukee’s talent is well represented by the amount of talent that we have on stage as well.”
Day two of the event continues tonight (Wednesday) at 8 p.m. at The Rave. More information can be found here.
