Deep Dive: Respect My Region Interviews Cookie's Berner
Image: @nabil IG
Berner, the man behind the powerhouse Cookies brand, recently chatted with Washington's own Respect My Region recently to discuss cannabis, music, and the secrets to success. Three of our favorite points are below.
1: Great Cannabis is what makes Great Brands
Cookies has not become the pre-eminent cannabis brand just because Berner is famous or because they have great marketing. Those help, of course, but Cookies is Cookies because their products, particularly their genetics, push the whole industry forward.
As Berner puts it;
"A lot of people, they can just put out a brand or a strain and it’ll work ’cause they rap. But for me, it’s what’s in the bag. How much time do you have to put into this brand? Are you really going to be hands-on with breeders, pushing the needle on moving products, building menus?"
2: Organic Vibes drive both Beats and Genetics
Anyone who's tried iconic Cookies strains like Berry Pie, Gary Payton, or Cheetah Piss, knows that genetics are the not-so-secret sauce of Cookies success.
For Berner, finding great breeders is like finding great hip hop producers, and the best results are when things work organically.
Most artists will tell you how important organic vibes are to their process; whether it’s picking beats, which Berner says is done by “whatever makes you immediately start freestyling,” or picking the right cannabis phenotypes. The rapper and entrepreneur, says that the right pheno has to start with taste first, then smell, the aroma in the air, and then the high. “If it checks all those boxes, then I’m good with it,” he remarks.
Upon asking what makes a new strain a hit single as opposed to just another track, he said, “When it’s organic, man. Like, Gary Payton was organic. We didn’t force nothing; we didn’t have to push the issue on nothing. It happened naturally. It was cool and worked great. When things happen the way it’s supposed to, that’s when it really works.”
3: Work Ethic Is Everything
Berner has built a reputation as the ultimate hustler, whose work ethic is the beating heart of Cookies' rapid growth.
His thoughts on the importance of work ethic are inspiring and enlightening. Of particular note is how Berner highlights the work ethic of bay-area rappers.
"I’ve put out a lot of albums and it never stops. The way we are out here in the Bay, we were told if you can’t write a verse on the spot, you ain’t got it. You got to the early studio sessions in San Quentin; guys like that would be there knocking out songs in front of you, like full songs.
"I got out to LA and saw artists do just pieces of a song. Even pieces of a hook. Maybe even just a concept. Like, laying down a mumble reference. I’m like, I’m from the Bay, we knock out full records. We do two to three records a day. I feel like that’s just the way we came up out here.”
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No matter how much the cannabis industry modernizes and reaches into new markets, it will always be limited by the challenges of banking. Federal legalization is the ultimate goal, but banking regulation relief would be an immediate help to an industry that has more than enough headwinds to contend with already.
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