A recently proposed New York state bill to prohibit rap lyrics from being used in criminal trials has support from some of the biggest names in the music business, including Jay-Z, Big Sean, Fat Joe, Killer Mike, Meek Mill, Yo Gotti, and more. Proposed in November, Bill S.7527/A.8681 — “Rap Music on Trial” — passed through a Senate Codes committee today, according to Rolling Stone, clearing the way for a vote in the bicameral state legislature. Should it pass Senate and Assembly votes, it’ll go to Governor Kathy Hochul, who Jay and his fellow signatories urged to sign the bill into law in a letter from Jay-Z’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, who co-wrote the letter along with University of Richmond Professor Erik Nielson.
Professor Nielson is the author of Rap On Trial, which examines and criticizes the use of rap lyrics to paint rappers as violent individuals, biasing juries against them in trials that often have little to do with the contents of their music.
“This reform is urgently needed,” reads the letter. “Rather than acknowledge rap music as a form of artistic expression, police and prosecutors argue that the lyrics should be interpreted literally – in the words of one prosecutor, as ‘autobiographical journals’ – even though the genre is rooted in a long tradition of storytelling that privileges figurative language, is steeped in hyperbole, and employs all of the same poetic devices we find in more traditional works of poetry.”
The timing of the bill is especially poignant in light of the recent death of Drakeo The Ruler, who spent two years in jail in Los Angeles as the city’s District Attorney prosecuted a case against him built largely around the lyrics of his music rather than hard evidence. Drakeo was later released after a new District Attorney was voted in, but had lost two valuable years of freedom, a case made all the more tragic by his death in December.
In a statement, Senator Jamaal Bailey of the Bronx, who co-authored the bill alongside Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, said, “Presuming a defendant’s guilt based solely on musical genre or creative expression is antithetical to our foundational rights and perpetuates the systemic racism that is embedded into the criminal justice system through discriminatory conflations of hip-hop and rap with criminality.” In short, don’t believe the hype; all rappers aren’t “thugs” and none should be considered guilty just because they rap about their conditions.
Celebrity bourbon, like celebrity tequila or anything else “celebrity”, is an odd beast. White labeling is a very real thing — that’s where big-name celebrities slap their names on a label, spend some time promoting the bottles, and then collect checks with little to no real influence on the process. But that’s not always how celebrity-driven bourbons come to be. Some famous folk actually dig into the process of making whiskey, help pick barrels and make blends, and spend a large amount of time championing the whiskeys they helped make.
Today, we have a bit of a mix of both worlds. Some of these bottles are sourced whiskeys that were released in an effort for a celebrity to jump on the bourbon boom. Some of them are passion projects. But does that love for the game shine through in what’s actually in the bottle? Or can an indifferent star make a better bourbon with a great brand backing them?
We’ll see!
Today, I’m tasting five bottles blind and then ranking them on taste alone. I’ve kept this a little smaller purposefully. The main reason is that when I’m tasting ten or 12 (or more) drams at once, some simply get lost in the mix — a few rise to the top, a few sink to the bottom, and the middle can become sort of an extended tie. When there are fewer drams competing, the competition becomes fierce because there’s nowhere for a middling dram to hide.
Our lineup today is:
Drake’s Virginia Black Decadent American Whiskey
Bob Dylan’s Heaven’s Door Redbreast Edition
Matthew McConaughey’s Longbranch
Scottie Pippen’s DIGITS Bourbon
Terry Bradshaw’s Bradshaw Bourbon
I was lucky enough to score a few of these from a bar owner and whiskey collector down in Prague where I host whiskey tastings to help keep things new and varied (hence the small taster bottles in some of the images). Let’s get to it!
This is thin from the nose to the end. There’s a touch of vanilla extract with a plastic vibe on the nose that leads towards a hint of old lemon peel. The taste is pretty watery with a touch of caramel and a mild spice that leans towards cinnamon toast. The finish arrives pretty quick with a little note of oakiness.
This feels like “bourbon” but only just.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose draws you in with a worn leatheriness next to dark stone fruits, brittle toffees, and something that feels like apricot jam with a good dose of winter spices. The palate is nutty (ranging from nutshell to marzipan) with a sticky toffee pudding vibe that leads towards plum candies. That sweetness gets very creamy with a vanilla pudding base as a light sense of stringy cedar barks leads back to that sweet plum candy.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There are very light notes of citrus on the nose that feel like a distant lemon-lime with a wet wood vibe. The taste dried that wood out immediately, driving it towards almost pine wall paneling with hints of dry and dark spices, peach pits, and vanilla that all leads to this beautiful caramel candy end.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a sense of vanilla extract that leads towards slightly singed popcorn with a touch of butter and an echo of cherry soda. The palate is classic bourbon with notes of caramel sauce, dark spice, light oak, and vanilla dancing with slight hints of leather and cherry tobacco. The end holds onto the vanilla before going full cherry candy on the finish.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This is a wild nose that goes from Wether’s Originals to leather-bound books to drug store aftershave. The palate is all about soft spices with a woody vibe that’s a little bit wicker and a little bit oak. The finish holds onto the spice and warms up considerably before veering headfirst into apple candy sweetness.
This whiskey is a collaboration between tequila maker Brent Hocking of DeLeón Tequila and Drake. The juice is a blend of high-rye bourbons from MGP that aged for two, three, and four years. That blend is then proofed all the way down to 40 percent before it’s bottled in what best can be described as a fancy art-deco perfume bottle.
Bottom Line:
This was last and it wasn’t even close. The 40 percent ABV meant that water kind of took over the whole flavor profile and left a faint hint of what whiskey might have been in those barrels.
This bottle is a collaboration between Bulls superstar Scottie Pippen and Napa wine superstar Dave Phinney. The juice is a sourced five-year-old whiskey that’s distilled in Tennessee, likely in a place that rhymes with “Tacoma”, alongside some MGP whiskey from Indiana. The barrels are sent to Mare Island, off San Francisco, where they continue aging before vatting, proofing, and bottling.
Bottom Line:
This is miles ahead of the bottle above. There’s a real sense of a well-built whiskey here that weirdly starts off a little thin but builds towards a very solid finish. I could see using this in cocktails very easily but I don’t know if it’s quite a sipper, like its price point suggests.
A few years back, Wild Turkey brought on Matthew McConaughey to be the brand’s Creative Director and design his own whiskey. The product of that partnership was launched in 2018. The juice is a wholly unique whiskey for Wild Turkey, thanks to the Texas Mesquite charcoal filtration the hot juice goes through. The bourbon then goes into oak for eight long years before it’s proofed and bottled.
Bottom Line:
I think this could have won that day had the first half (the nose and the opening of the palate) had been bolder. This dram ends amazingly but you have to sort of force yourself to get there. Still, it’s pretty solid once you’re past the first act.
Bradshaw Bourbon is made by Green River Distilling Company in Owensboro, Kentucky. The bourbon (and now a rye) is a collab between former Super Bowl champ Terry Bradshaw and Silver Screen Bottling Company, which acts as a sort of bottling fixer between a celebrity and a distiller or barrel house. The juice is a two-year-old bourbon made with 70 percent corn, 21 percent rye, and nine percent malted barley. It’s proofed to a hefty 103.8.
Bottom Line:
This really stood out. That aftershave moment of the nose threw me a bit (it’s not too out of leftfield) but made total sense with the whole experience. Then the palate truly popped as a very classic Kentucky bourbon. There weren’t any big bells or whistles but there didn’t need to be. This felt like a really solid “table bourbon” that you could sip on the rocks or throw in a cocktail and all will be well.
This whiskey is a collaboration between Heaven’s Door Master Blender Ryan Perry and Redbreast’s legendary Master Blender Billy Leighton. The duo worked long and hard to create multiple whiskey expressions, which Bob Dylan taste-tested and granted final approval on. The juice in the bottle is Heaven Door’s low-rye 10-year-old Tennessee bourbon. They take that whiskey and fill it into Redbreast whiskey casks that had previously aged Irish whiskey for 12 years. After 15 months of final maturation, those barrels are vatted and slightly proofed down with soft Tennessee spring water.
Bottom Line:
Nothing came close to this. It’s complex, accessible, pronounced, nuanced. There’s a real depth that makes sense and welcomes you in. This is the winner by a country mile. I wanted to immediately go back. Given that Dylan actually helps select barrels and works with the blending, I have to think that he’s got one hell of a whiskey palate.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
I think I would have been shocked if Heaven’s Door didn’t win. The majority of their lineup is pretty damn fine whiskey across the board. Still, when I saw that Bradshaw Bourbon was my second-place pick, I was shocked. I had written that bottle off as “Terry probably just slapped his name on a bottle.” That’s not exactly true, he is part of the process, in theory. He’s out there pounding the pavement for the brand and has a long history of barrel picks going back a long way. It shows in this whiskey as it feels like it was made by someone who adores bourbon.
For me, the Longbranch was the splitting point. That whiskey finished so beautifully that it felt like a real shift from “shitty” to “okay” to “very nice” in this lineup. Still, I wanted a bit more up top and up just wasn’t there.
When it comes to Scottie Pippen’s bourbon, my best summation is this “yup, that’s bourbon alright.” It just left me a bit cold while tasting it and now while thinking about it. I can’t really see myself ever going back to it.
Finally, there’s Drake. Sorry, but cool perfume bottle aside, this was “meh” at best and “try again, folks” at worst. The 80 proof just let too much water take everything over and there was very little left.
I guess that means Bob Dylan remains the GOAT, in more ways than one.
Already an accomplished wine and spirits entrepreneur, West Coast rap legend E-40 is making a statement in the beer game. Musically speaking, the tireless Bay Area rapper and mogul has been staying busy coming into the new year, putting in work with the Mount Westmore rap supergroup (E-40, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and Too Short) and putting down a hyped New Year’s Eve performance at the Day One 22 function in the Coachella Valley. But there is no rest for the weary as they say, and E-40’s new E. Cuarenta Mexican Styler Lager is now out in the world.
“The beer goes hand in hand with my E. Cuarenta Tequila. That’s why I named it the same; which means E-40 in Spanish,” E-40 tells Uproxx. “But I always feel like the proof is in the juice.” The smooth-sipping golden Mexican style lager is made in the Bay Area in San Jose, CA, and clocks in at a party-ready 6% ABV. It’s a more approachable offering than the 10% ABV of the cult favorite E-40 malt liquor.
Now with E. Cuarenta Cerveza, Stevens is adding to a robust wine and spirits portfolio that already includes brands in Tycoon Cognac VS and VSOP, Earl Stevens Selections wines (which also features the Earl Stevens Prosecco and Rosé Prosecco), E. Cuarenta Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo Tequilas, the popular Sluricane bottled cocktails, as well as his Kuiper Belt Bourbon whiskey. He also recently launched the Goon With A Spoon brand of meats.
“All these brands are 100% owned by me. 100% Black-owned,” Stevens says. “No silent partners. No investors and I’m not looking for any. There’s more products and varietals that I’m gonna bring to the table in the wine and spirits game; in pretty much every category that there is to touch. The sky’s the limit and it feels good.”
E. Cuarenta Cerveza is now available at BevMo and Total Wine & Spirits locations in California, but with distribution expanding quickly everywhere.
Snoop Dogg is a master of branding. While he’s been known to dabble in everything from cookbooks to cannabis (of course), he’s always looking to expand his personal brand. Now, according to Billboard, he’s even looking to move in on Oscar Mayer’s territory, filing an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark “Snoop Doggs,” his own brand of hot dogs and sausages. While that doesn’t mean that any plans are in motion just yet, his lawyers want to make sure the name is available if or when he does decide to sell them.
Filed in December as an intent-to-use application, the trademark suggests that he does have future plans. If so, he’ll have to squeeze in running the company between a bunch of other ventures, including releasing and performing new music as both a solo act and a member of the West Coast supergroup Mount Westmore alongside E-40, Ice Cube, and Too Short. He’s also Def Jam’s new executive creative consultant, a supporting cast member of 50 Cent’s BMF series, and the pitchman for everything from cerveza to homemade soda machines. Along with all that, in just one month, he’ll be joining long-time collaborator Dr. Dre onstage at the Super Bowl to perform the halftime show.
He’s a pretty busy guy, but from those of us who love a good barbecue, we can’t wait for Snoop Doggs to hit the stores — and our grills.
We don’t talk enough about the meteoric rise of Chance the Rapper. Just 10 years ago, Chance was known less as “the rapper” and more as Chancelor Johnathan Bennett, a Chicago high school student who had been suspended for 10-days for marijuana possession. That 10-day suspension gave Chance the opportunity to drill down and focus on his passion for rap, giving the world his debut mixtape 10 Day, a release that put Chance’s name on everyone’s radar and even garnered comparisons to fellow Chicago rapper Kanye West.
He followed up that release just a year later with the modern classic, Acid Rap, and then the beloved ColoringBook, which led to more critical acclaim, a record label bidding war, and multiple tv appearances. Chance showed up on everything from The Eric Andre Show to Ellen DeGeneres, eventually landing a dual role as host and musical guest on SNL (he was also the Obama family’s favorite rapper and regular guest). By the decade’s end, Chance would score a small role in The Lion King, befriend and collaborate with his hero Kanye West (producing Kanye’s best late-period song, “Ultra Light Beam”) and serve as the new host of the relaunched Punk’d.
Even your grandma knows who Chance the Rapper is. And while that doesn’t sound like the coolest flex, it certainly signifies just how huge Chance has really become.
If those bonafides aren’t enough to convince you, Chance has now landed the ultimate collaboration — his very own Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor — Mint Chocolate Chance. Now Lil’ Chano from 79th sits alongside other cultural giants like Jerry Garcia, Phish, and Stephen Colbert as his new flavor joins Ben & Jerry’s permanent roster of flavors.
But is Mint Chocolate Chance any good? We tried the new ice cream flavor to find out!
Mint Chocolate Chance
Dane Rivera
Mint Chocolate Chance, perhaps unsurprisingly, features a cool and refreshing mint chocolate base with chunks of brownie bites inside. Think mint chocolate chip ice cream with the chips replaced by giant pieces of soft, fudgy brownie. The flavor was apparently inspired by Chance’s childhood practice of mixing his favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream with his mother’s homemade brownies.
“It amazes me that no one thought to combine brownies and mint chocolate chip and I can’t wait to share it with everyone,” Chance said of the new flavor.
He’s right — how the hell is this a new flavor? It seems like one of the most obvious flavor combinations of all time! So it shouldn’t surprise you when I say that it works, because Mint Chocolate Chance is goddamn (forgive me Chance) delicious. The ice cream is wonderfully rich and creamy, it’s so thick and dense that it actually bent my spoon the first time I tried to scoop it out of the pint. Use an ice cream scooper. The brownies are sourced from New York’s Greyston Bakery, which prides itself on its use of real quality ingredients, and that commitment to craft shines through here.
Dane Rivera
A lot of times ice cream fillings, while always appreciated, are of subpar quality. It’s easy to hide grainy cookie dough or a subpar almond under layers of sweet, rich ice cream, who’s going to notice? Me, that’s who. So I’m really loving how good these brownie bites are, they are somehow still soft despite being totally frozen. It’s not quite as delicious as adding a warm fresh-baked brownie to your bowl of ice cream, but it comes pretty damn close. The mix of brownie and mint tastes like the best Andes mint you’ve ever had.
If your mouth is watering but ice cream is something you can only stomach a spoonful at a time, you’ll be happy to know Mint Chocolate Chance is also available in non-dairy form. The dairy-free version is made utilizing sunflower butter, which helps to keep the ice cream dense and creamy and not weird and icy like most dairy-free ice creams tend to be. The flavor isn’t quite as good though, it’s a bit duller in comparison to the OG Mint Chocolate Chance. Maybe that’s something I wouldn’t notice if I wasn’t eating them side by side, but I’m not about to sit here and tell you they taste nearly the same, they don’t really.
Dane Rivera
As is the case with most celebrity Ben & Jerry’s flavors, a percentage of sales of Mint Chocolate Chance will go to charity, in this case, Chance’s own five-year-old non-profit SocialWorks, which concerns itself with empowering Chicago youth through arts, education, and civic engagement, with programming that focuses on education, homelessness, mental health, and performing and literary arts.
Chance, who cut his teeth at open mics at libraries and after-school programs alongside fellow Chicago rapper Vic Mensa, has come full-circle in his career. Scoring his own delicious ice cream flavor from one of the most well-loved ice cream brands in the country feels like a fitting trophy as he approaches the ten-year anniversary of his first mixtape.
The Bottom Line:
A great addition to Ben & Jerry’s permanent lineup but opt for the dairy version over its less flavorful dairy-free counterpart. Imagine the thickest, creamiest mint chocolate ice cream you’ve ever had with big fudge brownies bites in each bite. Simple. Easy. Delicious.
The cannabis industry loves a good origin story. A story like Wonderbrett’s. The brand is named for Brett Feldman, a grower whose flavorful indoor-grown weed inspired a phrase heard around Los Angeles weed circles during the late ’90s and early 2000s — “You got that Brett?”
Equally important to the brand’s foundation is Feldman’s collaborator, Cameron Damwijk, also a master cultivator. The duo formally launched Wonderbrett in 2014, back during the Prop 215 (medical-only) days in California. Before that, Feldman and Damwijk were legends in Los Angeles music, street, and weed culture.
The quick story goes a little something like this: Back in 1997, Feldman was given a cut of OG Kush by Josh D, who along with another storied grower, Bubba, first brought the now-iconic strain to California from Florida in 1992. This may seem quaint now, but back then, this was before OG Kush was a thing outside of very select circles. Feldman went back and forth from the Bay Area, re-upping his supply of the newly in-demand strain for the Los Angeles market. Eventually, it became clear that this wasn’t the most efficient way of getting poundage in the hands of buyers, so Josh D bestowed upon Feldman a clone and basically said “have at it.”
The Brand:
Wonderbrett
Recognizing he had something special, Feldman took time to learn how to properly grow the strain in order to “not fuck it up,” he said while we toured his now 80,000-square-foot indoor grow facility in Long Beach. “When Kush was given to me, I had to figure out how to grow weed immediately,” he says. “I couldn’t kill the plants!”
And learn to grow he did. Due to the surging demand of OG Kush in Los Angeles during the late ’90s, Feldman soon found himself in the company of hip-hop’s biggest stars: Xzibit, Snoop, B-Real, and Dr. Dre among them. He was even invited to come chill in the studio during recording for Dr. Dre’s album, 2001. B-Real confirmed to me in a separate interview that it was Feldman who introduced him to Kush way back when.
Today, that legacy has turned into Wonderbrett, a full-fledged cannabis and lifestyle brand that maintains roots in the music community — Poo Bear, who is a recording artist and producer for Justin Bieber, Lupe Fiasco, Skrillex, and many others, is one of the brand’s major investors. In fact, Feldman, who is also a visual artist and the man behind the weed’s packaging design, recently released a new album of his own, “Wonderbrett: Volume 2,” which is a vibey, ethereal mix of beats perfect for — what else — smoking weed.
Wonderbrett’s Long Beach indoor cultivation site is massive. The brand grows with a 22,000-square-feet canopy footprint across 36 individual grow rooms. Altogether, it’s about 30,000 plants. Even at his highest capacity back in the pre-legal days, Feldman says he could never have imagined producing at such scale, and that while scaling has gone well for them, it remains the number one challenge.
“On a small grow, it’s easy to have control,” he says. “You’re always going to be able to be the guy who is there all the time, who sleeps at the grow, right? This is different.”
Nowadays, they have 14 proprietary cultivars in rotation, which are selected according to a number of characteristics that make Wonderbrett weed what it is. The brand’s slogan is “flavors on flavors,” and all it takes is one whiff of a jar to see why — to paraphrase Darth Vader, the terps “are strong with this one.” The focus on this aspect of weed makes a strong point often lost in today’s shopping landscape: THC percentage is merely one part of the equation, and not necessarily the most important one.
Wonderbrett/Uproxx
“If you buy weed on THC alone, you’re a dummy,” Feldman says.
It’s also about the terpenes and flavonoids, which is why it’s been so damaging to consumers to not be able to smell the weed they’re considering purchasing. Smelling it tells a massive part of the story. That’s not to say Wonderbrett’s weed isn’t strong — I am puffing on a 34.06% THC sample of the brand’s Pineapple OG as I type — but it’s true that THC potency is skewed as being the dominant marker of quality.
Walking into a Wonderbrett grow room with towering fat buds mere days away from completion makes an even finer point. I was smacked with smell every time I opened a door, whether that be an actual Peach smell in the Peach OZ room or the straight gas emanating from Black Orchid. The vividness matches the brand’s marketing strategy, which is to match dominant terpenes and flavonoids with the strain name as much as it makes sense — making an actionable connection in the customer’s mind. If someone is buying a strain with the word “peach” in the name, might it be a good idea to then pheno hunt for a variety that displays those very characteristics? Feldman says, “Yes. I’m glad you noticed that.” He offers an intentionally cartoonish laugh. “It means my strategy is working.”
The Weed
Wonderbrett/Uproxx
Feldman told me early in my tour — and I can confirm, after seeing it firsthand — that at Wonderbrett they dry trim only, which preserves trichomes, most importantly. Those are the little crystals that contain the fun cannabinoids, like THC, that make us high. He dries and cures for two weeks only. In general, from the day the weed is harvested, then tested, then dried and cured and finally packaged, Wonderbrett’s turnaround is about one month from harvest to package.
Wonderbrett’s jarred eighths aren’t cheap — they average for about $60 — and because they are constantly churning out new buds from their stratified and well-timed grow rooms, their customers are getting as fresh bud as one can possibly get on the legal market. The smell that lingers in the jars confirms this, though the bud is sometimes a bit dry. That’s more of the fault of legalization than any one individual grower.
I walked away from Wonderbrett’s facility with my head swimming in flavor, which is their intent. But does the bud stack up? I tried six: Black Orchid, Pineapple OG, Cherry Trop, Grapes of Wrath, and Chomp, which is the brand’s collaboration with rapper Russ.
Easily considered a signature cultivar of the brand, Feldman told me Pineapple OG’s roots go back to 2008, though 2014 is the first time anyone could buy it legally. These are the buds Wonderbrett led with once they could sell in the medical market. He also said it’s been one of the most consistent producers of high THC — the batch I tried, which clocked in at 34%, was no exception.
It’s gassy, redolent of its OG roots, and boasts flavors of sweet and sour fruits, like pineapples, guavas, and passionfruit. It’s easy to see why people love it, and it’s would be a solid go-to in any experienced smoker’s repertoire. Feldman also mentioned it’s a “hardy” cultivar, ideal for breeding, which he has done for other Wonderbrett strains, like Orange Banana.
Another favorite of mine is Black Orchid, which is a much more functional smoke than Wonderbrett’s other options, owing to its more balanced cannabinoid profile and dense flowers. THC is registered at 22%, which is a “Goldilocks” percentage for me — not too much, not too little, but just right. There are higher percentages of CBG and CBGA, as well, which is said to aid in relaxation. Limonene, Caryophyllene, Linalool, and Humulene are the dominant terpenes, which means this cultivar has a little bit of everything I like: citrus, earth, flowers, and a hint of gas, which one would expect from an OG Kush and Gelato cross.
The buzz that results from a Peach OZ smoke is definitely suited for daytime, but 30% THC suggests a daytime activity like taking a leisurely stroll in a beautiful location or sitting on the beach rather than anything that requires serious motor skill function. The smell and flavor match up on this one: peach, sweet citrus and a hint of vanilla round out this cultivar, which was made by Peach Rings and OZ Kush, a pheno gifted from Cannabis by Corey, which originally came from Dying Breed Seeds.
We already reviewed Chomp, which is a collaboration with the rapper Russ timed to release alongside his EP by the same name. It’s a heady strain, much more suited for cerebral activities – like, say, recording a rap album — which I attribute to Limonene as the dominant terpene.
Put simply, this is pool weed, a hybrid of Jet Fuel Gelato and Grape Pie. The high is heavy, befitting 27.65% THC, but uplifting, owing to the strong Limonene and Linalool content. It’s euphoric, something that would be greatly aided by listening to music, especially. This sounds weird, but it tastes like grape cake.
I’m not exactly sure what that means in reality, but a strong grape flavor accompanied by a yeasty, bready undertone makes sense to me here. The genetics are from Compound Genetics, purveyors of some of the hypest fire California’s breeders have to offer.
One of the grow rooms that displayed some of the most beautiful bud, in my opinion, was Cherry Trop, which popped with deep purples and even reds, depending on the light. It’s a hybrid mix of Cherry Cookies and Trop Cookies, which came from a seed pack by Relentless. The overall flavor is fruit: stone fruits and citrus, redolent of a sunny day spent eating sour candies. At 26% THC, it’s strong, but it won’t knock you on your ass. This is a stimulating daytime smoker for any activity that requires movement and focus but not too much intellectual brainpower.
Wonderbrett’s music connection is still strong
Wonderbrett
In addition to trying some of Wonderbretts current cultivar offerings and palling around with Feldman, I also got to talk to Poo Bear, who puts his money where his mouth is, as far as Wonderbrett is concerned. He said he was initially drawn to the brand through its highly stylized packaging — the brand’s signature color-blocked boxes – which struck Poo Bear as “very professional” in an era when weed was anything but. In the end, it’s really all about the weed and the man behind it, though.
“Brett always had the best product, you know, so when the opportunity came about to come in as an investor, I was like, ‘I would love to.’ I was investing in Wonderbrett because I just believe in him so much,” Poo Bear says of Feldman.
Poo Bear is also a major believer in Los Angeles weed culture, which he says isn’t just having a moment now – it’s always been quietly dominant. It’s just that people are finally starting to understand and recognize its greatness.
“I think LA took over awhile ago,” Poo Bear says of California’s mostly friendly competition between regional cannabis cultures. “You know, the Bay always had their purps, the things they were famous for. But L.A. has always been pushing it with these different flavors. It was probably like five or six years ago, scientists and growers just really started pushing the envelope in L.A. and I started to hear less and less about the Bay and L.A. just started filling that gap with consistency and variety. You see it with all the cannabis cups — L.A. wins all the cups. It’s definitely the cannabis capital.”
It goes without saying that Poo Bear thinks Wonderbrett was instrumental in making that happen and that the brand will be a staple of L.A. cannabis culture to come. After seeing their operation firsthand and smoking through the line, I’m ready to say I agree.
Over the last couple years, the world of hard seltzer was exploding with new additions. It seemed like every time you turned around, another brand had launched their own version, including several celebrity-backed options. One of which was Travis Scott’s Cacti hard seltzer, which he announced last winter and we gave a full review of this summer. Up until the last few months, it seemed like the seltzer was just another extension of Travis’ many brand collabs, like his McDonalds deal or the merch that went along with it.
“After careful evaluation, we have decided to stop all production and brand development of Cacti Agave Spiked Seltzer,” Anheuser-Busch said in a statement. “We believe brand fans will understand and respect this decision.” Though asked directly if the decision was due to the events at Astroworld, the brewer declined to comment further, and so far, Scott hasn’t issued a comment about the decision either.
The world of celebrity weed exists independently from the weed world at large. For the most part, these brands, as well as their namesakes, have little to do with cannabis culture or the cannabis they’re selling. Many celeb weed brands (especially those that popped up right after legalization) are little more than exercises in marketing — where flashy campaigns and absurd profit margins eclipse any intention of delivering a good product.
But there’s a catch with the celebrity weed industry that makes it trickier to navigate for the rich and famous than other celeb-branded spaces. Weed is a subculture with a distinct cool factor. Interlopers can be spotted from a mile away. Just because a celebrity puts out a brand, doesn’t mean smokers are going to like it. Even if they’re fans. These days, celeb brands are actually given more scrutiny than normal weed brands.
Why? Partly because there are so many of them now. But also because as cannabis culture is devoured by the mainstream, stoners have grown wary of business Chads and celebrity vultures swooping down to cash in on our magical plant and the subculture it’s created. There’s very much a sense of “where were you when we were getting high?”
If the celebrity in question was not in the trenches, using their platform to advocate for cannabis use with the stoners they’re now trying to sell weed to, the brand has a major problem and is likely going to get ridiculed within the community. It’s also the brands from non-stoner celebrities that tend to have the worst weed.
While great celebrity brands are heavily involved with the cultivation and selection of the strains they implement, others rely on white labeling — where cannabis is bought in bulk then re-branded (you also see this in plenty of celebrity booze brands too). The result is a totally polarizing sub-genre of the cannabis industry with some fire-ass weed, a lot of mids, and a handful of expensive trash.
Here’s a list to help you suss out the good, the bad, and the almost-un-smokeable of celebrity weed brands out there.
Cookies by Berner
Cookies Instagram
The Brand:
While it seems almost redundant to write anything about Cookies as they’re possibly the most visible brand in the weed world, it’s easy to forget that not only is Cookies a celebrity brand, it’s the most successful one of all time. Founded by Bay-area rapper Berner in 2012, Cookies has ballooned into its own empire– complete with a hype-beast subculture of avid fans.
Bottom Line:
With over 30 retail outlets in eight states and two countries, Cookies maintains their reign with proprietary genetics like their eponymous Girl Scout Cookies strain, as well as working with some of the best farms and growers in the world, like their recent collaboration with the Humboldt legacy brand Ridgeline Farms.
Insane by B-Real
Insane Instagram
The Brand:
Insane by Cypress Hill artist B-Real is a perfect example of a celeb weed brand that checks all the boxes. Great weed? Check. Bonafide stoner owner? Check. Insane in the membrane? You betcha.
Bottom Line:
B-Real is one of the most legit businessmen in legal weed today. He’s the owner of the Dr. Greenthumb dispensary chain and now the cannabis company Insane. Each carefully curated and extremely potent strain is a reflection of B Real’s lifelong commitment to loving, smoking, and creating great cannabis.
Mind Your Head by Mickey Heart
Mind Your Head Website
The Brand:
Mind Your Head is a magical preroll brand from the legendary Mickey Hart, drummer for the most stoned band of all time, The Grateful Dead. With two offerings, Magic Minis (mini prerolls) and Space Tickets (blunt-like prerolls infused with ice-water hash), this brand from a true OG is sure to steal your face.
Bottom Line:
Though it’s not clear where the weed comes from for these prerolls, Mickey Hart can do no wrong in the eyes of the stoner community. That passes the vibe check with kaleidoscopic colors.
Forbidden Flowers by Bella Thorne and Glass House Farms
Forbidden Flowers Instagram
The Brand:
Forbidden Flowers is an example of a different type of celeb weed brand, the collab. It’s often that celebrities (with little connection to the cannabis industry) will team up with an already existing brand to put out their line. In my opinion, this is a more reputable route to take than the straight corporate white label. At least the celeb is coordinating with people who care/know about weed in some capacity.
Bottom Line:
While Bella Thorne definitely smokes weed, this is a brand that feels more branded in her likeness than something she has a ton to do with. Glass House is a good weed brand, though, so at least the flower is worth smoking. And I like the glittery packaging.
Houseplant by Seth Rogen
Houseplant Instagram
The Brand:
Now for one of the most polarizing brands in celebrity cannabis today, Seth Rogen’s Houseplant. A bit of an enigma, Houseplant has garnered significant criticism for a brand coming from such a well-liked and extremely stoned celebrity. I think this is in part due to the fact that the cannabis community expected much more from one of our own.
The Bottom Line:
Houseplant flower is beautifully branded, totally expensive, and grown by THC Design, a popular Los Angeles cannabis brand known for high THC indoor flower with insane bud structure. Unlike Forbidden Flowers, whose Glass House collab is front and center in their marketing, Houseplant tried to keep their THC Design connection a secret, which didn’t particularly sit well when it came out. For example, Houseplant’s Pancake Ice strain is basically just rebranded Crescendo by THC Design, the #1 selling flower in California last year. Come on, Seth. You can do better than that.
Tyson Ranch by Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson Instagram
The Brand:
Now for one of the most confusing brands in the celeb weed world, Tyson Ranch. When Mike Tyson launched Tyson Holistic Holdings in 2016, he had big plans. Aside from cannabis and edibles, the brand would include the first cannabis resort of sorts, a 418-acre ranch in the desert that would include a festival venue and the world’s longest lazy river, among other things.
The Bottom Line:
Despite countless feature articles that claim to take you “Inside Mike Tyson’s Cannabis Ranch,” the photos are all drawings, and everything exists as a hypothetical. The reality is that, five years later, there is no ranch — only mediocre weed and subpar gummies. I love Mike Tyson and hope he realizes this bat shit idea as only he could. But so far, no dice.
Peaches by Justin Bieber
Palms Premium Instagram
The Brand:
As we near the end of this list, things are only getting worse. Next up in Dante’s descent into the inferno of celebrity mids is Peaches by Justin Bieber. Everything about this brand is annoying to me as a lifelong stoner. One, Justin Bieber has one of the largest platforms in the world and has never once used his voice to advocate for cannabis use. Suddenly entering the arena now that it’s socially acceptable seems like a cash grab from a dude who has plenty of cash.
Bottom Line:
The weed sucks. Grown by Palms Premium, it will get you high, but it doesn’t taste like anything or particularly smell like anything either, two major signs that the weed isn’t good, and clearly grown in some kind of industrial juggernaut that harvests 20 times a week and douses everything with chemicals.
Even if you get your peaches out in Georgia, I suggest you get your weed elsewhere.
Monogram by Jay-Z
Monogram Instagram
The Brand:
Monogram by Jay-Z is far and away my least favorite celebrity cannabis brand. While the packaging is gorgeous and the celebrity founder has extensive cannabis chops, the flower is terrible and absurdly expensive. Like…. $60 for a “hand-rolled” joint expensive. Even for the highest quality flower infused with kief or live resin, $60 would still be very expensive for a blunt. Instead of top-shelf flower, this joint is filled with shwaggy dried-out weed that honestly just makes you feel weird because it’s been so juiced for THC.
And that’s their flagship product.
The Bottom Line:
Their version of an eighth (four grams) is $70. This price point is usually reserved for some of the best weed on the market, not total mids from who knows where. The fact that the founder is a literal billionaire who came from nothing makes it all the ickier. He should know better and does.
This totally exploitive pricing system on shitty weed is nothing short of a bummer.
Good eats and great weed go hand in hand. The whole thing about weed giving you the munchies isn’t completely true (some weed does and some weed doesn’t) but one thing is for certain — weed makes food taste better. I don’t just mean marginally better. Eating while stoned can be a downright religious experience. After taking a fat rip you start laser focusing on the varying flavors, textures, and smells of your food. Suddenly a burger goes from a good lunch to a vivid sensory experience that borders on the psychedelic.
I know this because I write about food and weed constantly. So when I heard famed stoner and musician Wiz Khalifa was launching a food concept (appropriately dubbed HotBox) to pair with his Khalifa Kush weed brand, I knew it was something I had to experience.
Made in collaboration with the virtual restaurant brand NextBite, HotBox by Wiz Khalifa is a delivery-only virtual restaurant that is currently available in Miami, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York City, Houston, and more and is actively expanding to additional cities nationwide. The food is sourced from local restaurants that meet the specific ingredients and preparation practices required by NextBite — so the dishes should be pretty consistent, no matter what city you’re ordering from. The menu is a stoner’s paradise of indulgent carb-rich snacks like Hot Cheeto dusted cheeseburgers, zesty buffalo wings, tater tots, mac and cheese, cookies, and more.
None of Wiz’s food is actually infused with cannabis. But the brand and Wiz himself confirmed in a Zoom tasting I attended that they were actively exploring the idea while also looking for ways to offer plant-based options to the menu. The lack of any cannabis-infused treats may seem like a missed opportunity, but I think the food actually stands a chance of tasting better without any infusions. Better, in my opinion, to smoke up and treat this as a post-stoned meal.
Which is exactly what I did.
The Weed: Khalifa Kush
Dane Rivera
Before we get into the menu, we should probably talk about Wiz Khalifa’s cannabis brand Khalifa Kush — currently available in California in preroll and flower form. The cannabis is sourced from Northern California’s Bay Area by Colorado-based cultivator RiverRock Cannabis and is apparently the only weed Wiz smokes. He affectionately refers to the brand simply as “KK” on social media. I’d call bullshit on that as purely a piece of marketing but, having smoked the brand, I can actually buy it.
Khalifa Kush has a pungent flavor and provides a sensory-enhancing high with a THC level in the mid 20% range. Smoking the pre-roll had me feeling good and hypersensitive to my surroundings, while still keeping me from feeling weighed down and sluggish. It didn’t have the best flavor to it (I was smoking a pre-roll after all) but the high was powerful and definitely lifted my spirits. Not a bad pairing to go with a menu launch… but with all the weed I smoke for work (living the dream over here) my tolerance is through the roof, so I plan to be as harsh with the HotBox food as I am when I’m ranking french fries, chicken sandwiches, or any other food.
Nice try though Wiz!
The Bottom Line
If you want to smoke what Wiz smokes in the studio, this indica-leaning hybrid is definitely worth a pickup.
The Food: Ranked From Worst To Best
5. So Baked Hybrid Cookies
Dane Rivera
Nope, not hybrid like a weed strain, this is simply a mix of caramel, chocolate, and pretzel, all mixed up into a single cookie that is served with a salted caramel dipping sauce. This cookie is easily the weakest link on the menu. It’s not it tastes bad — it’s a damn cookie we’re talking about — but it’s not really that good either. The cookie is dense, a bit dry and is more cookie than you want in a single sitting (which, consequently, means it’s perfect for being stoned) and despite having pretzel bites and a salted caramel dipping sauce, this thing comes off as much more sweet than it does salty.
A better balance between the salty and sweet flavors might’ve made this cookie a winner but as it stands, it’s just okay. Don’t let those stoner goggles fool you into thinking you actually want to order this. You’re just high.
The Bottom Line
Unless it’s free with the meal, skip this one, you’re not missing out on anything.
4. Taylor Gang Tots
Dane Rivera
I’m a little torn on these. First of all, tater tots, while delicious, just don’t travel well. When hot and crispy tater tots are trapped in a wax-lined paper box, the heat that emits off of them and bounces off the walls of the container turns what should be a crispy masterpiece into a soggy mess. That’s exactly what happened to these tots so if you really want these to shine you’re going to have to put just a bit of work into it. After a few sad tots, I grabbed my order, spread the tots on a sheet of aluminum foil, and threw that shit into the toaster oven for a good ten minutes until they were nice and crispy again.
The tots themselves are delicous, they’re fluffy, a bit buttery, and full of flavor, but given that they don’t travel well, we can’t rank these much higher than this placement. Especially considering if you’re stoned and hungry, you’re going to be less motivated to put the work into helping these tots shine.
The Bottom Line
Delicious, but tater tots don’t travel well so if you don’t have the patience to reheat these in a toaster oven to get them crispy again definitely skip these.
3. Bigger Blazier Buffalo Wings
Dane Rivera
My HotBox order came with the Bigger Blazier Buffalo Wings order, not to be confused with the menu’s Bigger Better Buffalo Wings, so I can’t speak to how much “blazier” they are compared to the OG, but as far as buffalo wings go these are pretty excellent. I prefer a crispier exterior, but given the travel time I knew I wasn’t going to get that. I didn’t feel the need to reheat these though like the tots. The chicken is tender and juicy while the buffalo sauce gives a nice zesty and spicy kick. The wings are served alongside a side of ranch or bleu cheese dressing and the ‘ol standard wing accompaniement of carrot and celery sticks.
The HotBox wings match the sort of quality and depth flavor you’d find from a WingStop or Buffalo Wild Wings. It’s not mind-blowing, but the wings are perfectly serviceable and I find little if nothing to complain about.
The Bottom Line
A pretty solid wing effort. Wiz would be wise to add a few more flavors, hopefully a dry rub is in the cards.
2. Fully Packed Bowl
Here is where things get really interesting. Wings and cookies are all fine and good, but the Fully Packed Bowl truly lives up to the stoner food utopia promised by this culinary concept. It comes off as a greatest hits package of the entire HotBox menu, a bed of tater tots is bathed in a blanket of saucey macaroni and cheese drizzled with the same zesty buffalo sauce used on the wings accompanied by crispy chunks of fried chicken and some Hot Cheeto dust sprinkled on top of it all. The bowl has crunch, thanks to the fried chicken (the tots still leave something to be desired) and Cheeto dust combination, and is full of savory salty flavors that serve as the perfect stoner cat nip.
You have to be high to even want to eat this thing, but from your first forkful on you’ll be pleased that you took that big rip before diving in.
The Bottom Line As decadent and delicious as it sounds. The Fully Packed Bowl combines an appetizer sampler’s worth of flavors with the form factor of nachos. It’s the most stoner-friendly item on the menu and a must order.
1. Blazed OG Cheetos Burger
Dane Rivera
I know I just sang the praises of the Fully Packed Bowl, the best stoner food I’ve had all year, but what really blew me away from the HotBox menu was the Blazed OG Cheetos Burger. I’m not the biggest Hot Cheetos fan — yes, I ranked every single flavor of Flamin’ Hot ever, but I wouldn’t count myself as a true fan and I certainly am not a fan of Hot Cheeto dust in food. I find it incredibly gimmicky. Or I should say, I “found” it incredibly gimmicky, because the Blazed OG Cheetos Burger has completely changed my mind. It might be banned in Europe, but Hot Cheeto dust is a fantastic blend of artifically spicy flavors that deliver on the heat without drowning out any of the other flavors.
Get this dust in the hands of a professional chef ASAP! The Blazed OG Cheetos Burger comes with a thick and juicy burger patty, American cheese with Hot Cheetos dust embeded into it, as well as lettuce, tomato and what HotBox is calling Thrill Sauce on a brioche bun. For whatever reason, my burger didn’t come with the Thrill Sauce but it was so good it honestly didn’t matter.
The beef has a nice depth of flavor, it’s juicy, salty, and perfectly cooked. The burger quality matches the same sort of flavor you’d find at a Fat Burger or Shake Shack. Not quite as juicy, but definitely a contender for best deliverable burger in the fast food space. If you’re going to order one thing off of the HotBox menu I still suggest you try the fully packed bowl, but in terms of which menu item has the best flavor, it’s hard to beat this. Though I haven’t tried the delicious looking chicken sandwich that is on the menu which Wiz counted as a personal highlight.
The Bottom Line So good I wish it was a double!
You can order Wiz Khalifa’s HotBox online at the official website or through third party delivery services like DoorDash, UberEats, Postmates, and GrubHub.
Have you ever taken a big bite out of a dessert pie and wondered, “What if this could get me drunk?” Now thanks to Cardi B, you don’t have to wonder any more. The rapper partnered with Starco Brands for Whipshots, cans of whipped cream that are infused with vodka. After releasing a select number of cans last week, Cardi officially debuted the new boozy dessert over the weekend at Art Basel in Miami.
Cardi shared Whipshots with guests at a star-studded sweets-themed party this weekend, offering a preview of the three flavors — vanilla, caramel and mocha — which have been flying off the shelves this month. The rapper offered partygoers the Whipshots served in cones, cocktails, on desserts, and straight from the can throughout the event, per a report from Billboard.
About her decision to create the dessert, Cardi told Billboard in a statement that it’s the perfect combination of sexy and tasty: “I’m not really a hardcore liquor-drinking person. And I like things that are sexy and tasty. It’s going to be a party in every can. At one time I was planning to do margaritas, but this is more fun.”
Echoing Cardi’s statement, Starco Brands CEO Ross Sklar said the rapper was the perfect addition to their product. “You’ve got to find somebody that has a personality that is transparent, super fun, super playful,” Sklar said. “Someone who doesn’t mind being flirty, but above all, is herself. The product delivers and the personality delivers … That authenticity delivers credibility.”
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
