Life Archives - Page 244 of 245

We Talked To G-Eazy About His New Cannabis Brand, FlowerShop, And Smoked His Debut Pre-Rolls

May 13, 2021 by newhiphopnews

If it seems like every week a new celebrity launches a weed brand, that’s because… every… week… a new celebrity… launches… a… weed brand. For the most part, these entries into an increasingly crowded marketplace are pretty forgettable. But occasionally — as with the case of Jay-Z’s Monogram and Seth Rogen’s Houseplant — the right team manages to knock it out of the park, earning permanent shelf space at your local dispensary.

I’m pleased to say that FlowerShop — a new brand launched by rapper and producer G-Eazy, along with co-founders and fellow Bay Area boys Isaac Muwaswes and Gabe Garcia — is one of those select few. But FlowerShop isn’t just a cannabis label. It’s also a wellness company, with a long list of products on deck. Its first drop delivers rolling papers, lighters, ashtrays, and three glass-tipped pre-roll joint packs, called Bouquetpacks. A 1/8th flower jar and “cannabis juice” are coming soon.

The Bouquetpacks offer three different mood-focused strains — dubbed Comfort, Smile, and Joy — each packed in reusable plastic tubes and sporting a glass-filter tip for better handling and flavor. After smoking the Comfort strain, I spoke with Muwaswes, Garcia, and G-Eazy himself about the origins of the brand, their own relationships to cannabis, and why joints will always feel special.

But first, let’s break down the weed.

The Packaging

Right out of the gate, the first interesting thing about FlowerShop is the brand’s design aesthetic. The Bouquetpack’s matte flip-top box features a magnetic top, and four pre-rolled single flower joints packed in resealable plastic tubes with glass filter tips. At four joints per pack and a retail price of $50, you’re looking at a cost of $12.50 per joint.

Since an eighth of Panacea Farms Purple Double Deja Vu will cost you about $60 before taxes, this pack has pretty good value for what you get, it’s a lot better than Monogram’s $60 hand-roll, for example, and the weed is of a much higher quality.

A fifth joint would’ve really set this up as something special though. The packaging is playful and colorful, but we would’ve preferred just a little bit more information for the consumer.

The Weed: FlowerShop — Comfort

Strain: Indica
Dominant Terpenes: Caryophyllene, Myrcene, Pinene, Humulene,
THC: 22.5%

Retail Price: $50

The Experience

One of the things that first struck me about FlowerShop’s pre-roll pack was just how fragrant it smelled after I cut open the sealed plastic envelope it came packaged in. Once the scissors pierced the plastic I was instantly greeted by a wave of floral and slightly minty smells, with a slight pepper edge that tickles the nose. The joint itself is incredibly well packed, just rolling it through my fingers showed a consistent and dense pack that led to a lengthy smoke session with thick clouds of milky intoxicating smoke.

Again, FlowerShop’s attention to detail and design is at the forefront here. Each glass filter utilizes blue-colored glass — fitting with the color scheme. Does that have any effect on how high you get? Absolutely not, but it certainly has an effect on the experience. Smoking FlowerShop’s joints feels like you’re enjoying something special, it’s practically begging to be shared just so you can pass it around as a conversation piece.

Of course, cool filters would feel like a gimmick if the high didn’t deliver. It does. This will be a fun joint to pass between friends when we’re past Covid, but right now I’m not sharing with anyone. Which resulted in me getting — to borrow a Bay Area phrase — hella high.

Comfort is made using Panacea Farm’s Purple Double Deja Vu and the high comes on incredibly quickly here. Well before you make your way through the joint, a pleasing buzz took over me — beginning in the center of the forehead before melting down in radiating waves of euphoric bliss through the rest of my body. Real talk: I did not expect a celebrity-fronted weed brand to hit this hard. FlowerShop chose well by linking up with Panacea Farm for this one and opting for a single-sourced full flower joint (rather than a blend of shake) led to a better tasting, less harsh product.

I broke up one of my spare pre-rolls (which I regret) to get a look inside — Comfort has a great medium-coarse grind and the bud is fresh and still slightly sticky.

Flavor-wise, Comfort had floral notes with a heavy gas flavor and a peppery, slightly melon aftertaste. The smoke was remarkably smooth which is rare in pre-packaged joints, resulting in pleasingly smooth drags that didn’t lead to a single cough during my whole experience.

My only gripe is that calling the strain “Comfort” is a bit misleading, they might as well call it “KO” — smoking a full joint solo launched me beyond couch lock and straight into a nap. I had no plans on taking a nap, I wasn’t even tired, so this is definitely not something to mess with if you’ve got plans.

The Bottom Line

Smooth smoke with earthy flavors of cracked pepper and subtle melon and mint, which results in a body-tingling euphoric high designed to knock you out.

The Interview

You’re all Bay Area kids, can you speak to the cannabis scene in the Bay Area while you were growing up. I know it’s always been a big part of the culture.

Muwaswes: I was born and raised in San Francisco, not too far from Haight Ashbury, so some of my early memories of being exposed to weed was going down to Haight Ashbury with my friends to kick it. As a young kid you’re kind of exposed to this narrative around the history and the demonization of cannabis, but as I kind of got into it in middle school going to high school you start to make your own assumptions.

But even then, pretty early on in high school, I started to hear about all these medicinal uses for it and hearing about the groundswell that was happening surround Prop 215. It was really being looked at as a medicine, and I’ve come across friends of my parents who were using it as a medicine as well, so pretty early on I started to see it as “oh this is something we in the Bay Area kind of have a different view upon and are really progressive on” and that intertwined with the cultural aspect, growing up listening to hip-hop, being into all things hip-hop, music, fashion — it was intertwined in those subcultures.

Whatever group of friends I had — whether it was my athlete friends, my friends into music, the friends into fashion — that was one thing we all shared. One experience that connected us all was smoking.

I know the brand takes a heavily sensory approach to cannabis, that’s right on the packaging. What’s the thinking behind positioning the brand this way and how does it differ from other celebrity-fronted brands that are springing up in the cannabis space?

Muwaswes: When we built Flower Shop we really built it as a wellness company as a whole, I think we always looked at cannabis as one aspect or one category of what we’re trying to do from the perspective of wellness. For us, we tried to really define what wellness means to us. One big realization we had was that it’s not one thing, it’s not singular, it’s more about the journey than the destination

Through that, we started to define how we can take people through that journey, and what we do to get on that journey. It’s about inspiring our senses, whether it’s the music we listen to, the candle we burn that smells a certain way, whether it’s the lighting in the room that makes us feel a certain way and opens up our mood to certain elements or experiences, we always knew it tied back to one or many of our senses and we’re already in that mindset for a lot of the other things we were doing previous to FlowerShop. Whether it was in the design world with Gabe or the music world with G, it’s about bringing all of that together in a retailer experience.

That was kind of the genesis of sensory care, and then we started to apply that to everything we were doing from product to packaging to messaging to content.

G Eazy: To jump in, from my perspective as a musician, music can be a healing agent. Similar to flower, it can be something that brings people together, people who share this commonality come together for this shared experience. But as a musician I have a wide array of influences and taste in music, I can deliver “No Limit” but then I can do “Everything Will Be OK,” that wide offering and understanding of mood and emotions are important in anything you offer because you don’t just have one customer, and each customer doesn’t have just one mindset and mood.

We wanted to find what resonates at different times of the day or different times in your life, and wanting to reach people on a level of emotion and feeling, similar to the way music would.

I wanted to ask you specifically about your smoking habits G, are you smoking a bowl before you hit the studio, something you do after to unwind, what’s your creative relationship with the plant?

G-Eazy: There is pretty much a constant burn in the studio. Atmosphere is huge in the creative process, that comes down to lighting, how cold I like it, the people I want and don’t want in the studio, and that comes down to what I’m drinking and smoking. With smoking, it’s not a requirement. It’s not needed to unlock creativity, but nonetheless, it’s something that loosens you up and makes you feel better and makes you feel joy or relaxation, that can only open you up and enable more flow of stream of consciousness.

Garcia: To add to that we started thinking about whether cannabis a creative performance enhancer? We like the idea, we can’t go shout it off the mountaintops, but for us, we like that conceptually and believe it. But to G’s point, it’s not a reliance.

G what’s your preferred smoking method and why did you guys start with the BouquetPack over a flower jar?

G-Eazy: Joints and blunts. It’s what I grew up smoking. Every day in high school coming home from work, I’d get home around midnight or 1 AM and I’d roll up a personal blunt and smoke it in the backyard while my mom was asleep, just to be able to wind down and decompress and get ready for school the next morning. It was just culturally what I grew up doing.

Garcia: That’s the reason we’re excited to share the bouquet pack and included the glass tip pre-rolls, that’s our attempt to elevate what is standard.

Where is the product sourced from?

Muwaswes: Sourcing wise we have a number of really good relationships with cultivators throughout the entire state of California. A lot of the key growers out here we have partnerships with and what we’re doing right now is these drops or deliveries with individual strains and growers. The one you have right now, we partnered with Panacea Farms for — a craft grower under the NorCal banner. We’re doing a number of different things with brands, growers, and cultivators, long term we are going to be having our own genetics out there, but for the time being, we’re trying to find the best of the best that we want to work with that also understand our vision and understand what we’re trying to do from a sensory care perspective with these products.

What brought you to the cannabis business? Your backgrounds are comfortably in design and music, not in the cannabis industry.

Garcia: It came to us really, growing up in the Bay Area and how prominent it is it was probably inevitable. It came through a design project at first. We’ve been in the creative design space for a long time.

We started getting inbound requests from the cannabis end, that’s how it initially started to come to us, and we entertained one specific deal and that’s where it really started. As we got into it and did the research, we wanted to find our foothold and what felt authentic to us to enter the space and it was through design, through packaging through a vision, but as we got into it, we started asking ourselves deeper questions.

This is a two-and-a-half-year project in the making and we’re really proud of it and excited to share it with the world.

What’s special about FlowerShop, what sets it apart from other brands?

Garcia: It’s all in our packaging! We really did our best to make it as recyclable and eco-conscious as possible. We tried to make everything reusable — or unique enough to make people want to reuse it. The tubes the pre-rolls come in, our incense sticks are coming in those, it’s also a tube you can use to clean your glass tips and reuse them, same thing for the box itself.

Our Bud Vase, which will be dropping in 90 days, has a jar that’s able to be reused. With all of our packaging, we’ve thought about how we can inspire people to reuse it and reapply it to something else. The vase is food grade, it can be washed in the dishwasher, it can be used to store yogurt —

G-Eazy: As a shot glass!

Garcia: You know it!

Muwaswes: We were just as focused on what was going into the packaging as who we are sourcing weed from. Using a single strain indoor for our prerolls, not using shake, grinding the best of the best, being meticulous about the grind and the coarseness, consistency on the burn and smoke, even on the sourcing of the paper!

We Tried To Devise Lorde’s Perfect Onion Ring — Here’s The Recipe

April 29, 2021 by newhiphopnews

Lorde is back! Well, she’s back reviewing onion rings, at least, and we’re here for it. In her first onion ring review of 2021, the world’s most famous onion ring aficionado reviewed the Pickled Onion Rings at Auckland’s Hotel Ponsonby, which serves elevated English pub fare.

On her (no longer secret) onion ring-focused Instagram, Lorde wrote this about the pub’s rings:

We’re talking PICKLED onion rings which is a first for this reviewer. I totally vibe the concept — used to eat pickled onions out of the jar as a youngster — however I think if you’re gonna go there, go there, and let acidity rather than sweetness dominate. Absolutely sensational batter, perhaps the best I’ve tried. 4/5 overall ringsperience.

This is a solid review and will surely lead to a ring boom at Hotel Ponsonby. It was also glowing enough to motivate us to break out the ol’ wok and try these rings for ourselves (since we’re probably not going to be in Auckland anytime soon).

To master this recipe, I looked into New Zealand pickled onion culture (yes, that’s a thing). There’s actually a fair number of recipes for pickled onions throughout New Zealand’s food media outlets. The thing is, I don’t really have a week to let something pickle in a dark cupboard. So I took my cues from New Zealander’s recipes and adapted them to make it doable in about an hour with a sous vide.

I’ve used my sous vide to make a lot of pickles (root veg, eggs, fish, etc.) in the past and it really only takes about an hour to have a fully-brined pickle. For this recipe, that sped-up process will do nicely.

Lastly, I really focused on the batter. I knew it had to be something “sensational” for Lorde to give it full marks. So I made sure I was devising something that’d have a beautifully crunchy exterior while still providing a softer interior, leading to the briny and savory pickled onion inside. That’s enough preamble, let’s get into the recipe!

Related: An Ode To Onion Rings, Plus How To Make Them At Home

“Lorde’s Favorite” Pickled Onion Rings

Ingredients:

Pickle Brine:

2 cups water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/8 cup salt
1/8 cup sugar
1 bay leaf
10 peppercorns
10 coriander seeds
10 mustard seeds
2 bird’s eye dried chilis

A quick note on the brine. This is where I’m drawing acidity from. There’s a low amount of salt and sugar that’ll give you that “briny” edge of a pickle. Then the addition of apple cider vinegar will bring that mild pH acidic vibe to the whole thing.

Otherwise, you do you on the pickle brine spices. If you want it spicier, add more chilis. Mix and match with seeds and barks. Overall, this is a mild pickle brine with a classic edge that leans towards the New Zealand-centric pickle recipes I found online.

Ring batter:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 bottle or can of pilsner (more as needed)
2 egg yolks
Large pinch of salt
White pepper

Other:

Two yellow onions
Neutral oil
Aioli
Salt

Another quick note: As you can see in the image below, I’ve removed the inner skins between the layers of the onion. This is crucial for a bite-able onion ring. If you’ve ever had an onion ring that immediately slid out of the batter, it was because of that slippery film that’s between every layer. It takes a little extra time but is as easy as simply pulling the skin off after you’ve made your rings.

What You’ll Need:

Large Zip-lock bag
Sous vide circulator
Large pot
Small pot
Large bowl
Whisk
Wok or deep fryer
Slotted spoon
Metal grate and baking sheet
Paper towels
Tongs

Method:

For the pickled onions:

Set the sous vide circulator to 185F/85C in a large pot of water.
Add the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar to a small pot and bring to a boil to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from heat and let cool for ten minutes.
Peel and slice onions, making sure to remove the film between each layer of the onion as you push out the rings (it should slide right off).
Add the spices and onions to the Zip-lock bag. Pour the warm brine into the bag.
Immerse the bag into the bath and use the pressure of the water to remove any excess air and seal the bag. Use a clip to hold the bag to the side of the large pot.
Cook the onion rings for 30 minutes.
Prepare an ice bath. When the 30 minutes are up, place the Zip-lock bag into the ice bath to stop the cooking and cool the pickled onion rings.

For the onion rings:

Combine flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt, and white pepper in a large bowl.
Add the egg yolks and beer while whisking until you get a thin batter (sort of halfway between a crepe and pancake batter).
Lay the onion rings on a paper towel and pat dry.
Heat about one-half gallon of neutral oil in a wok or heavy-bottomed pot (I used sunflower) to 375F/190C.
Using tongs, dip the rings into the batter and then gently lay them into the hot oil, creating a single layer of onion rings.
After about one minute, flip the rings with the tongs to brown them evenly on both sides.
After another minute, remove the onion rings to a rack over a baking sheet. Immediately hit with a pinch of salt.
Repeat until all the rings are fried.
Serve with aioli dip.

Bottom Line:

I love fried pickle chips, so I knew I was going to love these. And, wow, thank you, Lorde, for turning me onto pickled onion rings. These are, hands down, some of the best onion rings I’ve ever tasted. And they were without a doubt the #1 best rings I’ve ever made. The onion was soft and hot with a deep pickle brine that had a touch of heat and acidity. The sweetness was there but tied more to the onion than sugar. Really though, the sweetness took a back seat to the overall brininess of the onion.

The batter was freaking sensational. The addition of corn starch allowed the batter to be super crunchy on the outside while still feeling supple on the inside. Moreover, as these rings cooled down (onion rings always get cold too fast), the batter stayed super crunchy.

Using aioli as a dipping sauce is a win as well (I used some good stuff from Spain). The lemon/garlic/mayo feel was the perfect counterpoint to the pickle brine and crunchy batter of the ring. This was comfort food in its purest form.

Finally, there was the side-by-side look of these rings compared to Lorde’s. You can judge for yourself below. I haven’t tasted my competition, but I do know that this is the only way I’ll be making onion rings from here on out. Lorde, if you’re ever near Uproxx’s offices — we got you.

Post Malone Launches A Merch Line Based On His Rosé Brand, Masion No. 9

April 8, 2021 by newhiphopnews

In today’s cross-branded world of diversified revenue streams, it seems like every rapper is also an entrepreneur, pitching everything from cannabis to alcohol in addition to their usual array of album and tour merchandise. Post Malone, who has invested in all of the above, seems to have found yet another way to ensure maximum monetization of his ever-expanding portfolio.

Post loves taking an off-kilter approach to marketing himself and now, he’s applying that outlook to his non-music endeavors. Despite only launching his rosé line Maison No. 9 less than a year ago, he and business partners James Morrissey and Dre London have updated the wine’s logo and color scheme and created a Maison No. 9 merch line to draw attention to the young brand. The 2020 vintage of the wine will receive a new look, as well.

The merch is designed by Post himself and includes T-shirts, a hoodie, and a baseball cap. Post will also share seasonal cocktail recipes curated himself. You can check out images of the merch below.

In addition to selling fancy French wine, Post has also jumped into the world of crypto-products, producing an NFT experience for fans to play beer pong with him, and is pursuing acting. He appears as a bank robber in the trailer for Jason Statham’s upcoming action revenge thriller Wrath Of Man after playing an incarcerated criminal in Netflix’s Spencer Confidential.

A Full Review Of CACTI, Travis Scott’s Agave Spiked Seltzer

April 3, 2021 by newhiphopnews

Travis Scott is as big as most any brand out there. He’s dominating the hip-hop space, burning up the streetwear scene with his Cactus Jack label, making moves in the virtual world, and he’s even dabbled in the fast-food universe. So it should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody that now Scott is lending his dusty desert aesthetic to a spiked seltzer — another extremely popular cultural fixture.

CACTI is made in collaboration with Anheuser-Busch and is Scott’s answer to White Claw. Don’t be fooled (or charmed) by the sound of “agave spiked seltzer,” though. CACTI is made from water, fermented cane sugar, a hint of lime juice, and agave syrup — it doesn’t have tequila in it. It’s basically the same ingredient set as White Claw and Truly. But it’s made way sweeter by thanks to that agave syrup, which also means it’s about double the calories of those other brands.

The upshot is that at 7% ABV, it’s a lot stronger. You’ll feel the buzz after a single can — definitely a good thing when each serving is 150 calories.

CACTI is brewed in Los Angeles and available in just three flavors as of now — Lime, Pineapple, and Strawberry. It’s dropping in a 9-count 12-oz variety pack, as well as 16oz and 25oz jumbo cans (only available in Lime and Pineapple). We got our hands on a case and decided to see how it stacks up to the competition in the over-saturated spiked seltzer market.

Is this a legit attempt at a worthwhile beverage or a simple cash-grab?

The Packaging

Before we dive into each flavor, special mention has to be given to the packaging of CACTI. It matches Travis Scott’s dusty desert vibe perfectly, which helps to drive home that you’re drinking Travis Scott’s spiked seltzer and not something else. The cans themselves have a nice matte finish to them that would make Marques Brownlee weep with joy. It’s not the most important thing in the world but it really sets you up for a positive experience.

Before I cracked a can open I wanted to like it, just because I loved the way the packaging looked and felt. That’s kind of genius! But only really matters if the product delivers from a flavor standpoint.

CACTI — Strawberry

On the nose, the strawberry flavor is superior to every other flavor in the CACTI line. It’s akin to a basket of freshly washed in-season strawberries from the grocery store. Unfortunately, that’s where the association with anything remotely natural ends, because on the palate, CACTI Strawberry is a candied disaster.

Okay, maybe “disaster” is too strong but this tastes overly sugary. It’s no wonder why the strawberry is the only flavor to not release in larger size options — getting through a can feels like a chore.

While the initial blast of a freshly opened can is a bit overwhelming, once this flavor mellows out a bit it becomes a little more palatable. At its best (midway through the can, still cold), it tastes exactly like what a strawberry Jello-shot made with bottom-shelf vodka tastes like.

The Bottom Line

If you live for sweet drinks, this is certainly one of the sweetest spiked seltzers on the market. But if you hate Jello-shots, stay far away from this brew.

CACTI — Lime

Each of the CACTI seltzer flavors features a drop of lime juice, so they’re doubling-up on the lime here and it pays off! I was initially wary as to whether I’d like the Lime, as it presented almost no aroma when I cracked open a can. But I was pleased to find that this was a considerable step up from Strawberry.

The flavors just gel so much more harmoniously here, the lime juice and “natural flavoring” is the perfect complement to the blue agave syrup, resulting in a smooth, highly vegetal expression that really sets itself apart from other lime flavored seltzers. Where White Claw and Truly’s lime seltzers are spikey and tart, CACTI Lime is like syrup, it almost begs for an additional shot of a good vodka or tequila.

Which we’d recommend if a single can of CACTI wasn’t enough to get you buzzed. It definitely is.

Bottom Line:

The smoothest lime-flavored hard seltzer we’ve ever had the pleasure of drinking. Highly vegetal and grassy, offering a complexity unseen in the hard seltzer space.

CACTI — Pineapple

If I had to choose a single flavor of CACTI to bring home it would be… Lime, just because it’s more versatile. But if I’m ever reaching for a single can? It’s going to be Pineapple, which tastes the best as a standalone product. Cracking open a can reveals heavy tropical notes. It doesn’t recall the sharp tart qualities of pineapple so much as the rounder qualities of mango.

On the palate, CACTI Pineapple feels a little one-note — a bit like unripened pineapple — but the finish is sweeter and conjures a custom-made pineapple Jolly Rancher. The fact that this will get you buzzed is sinful, this is straight-up candy as an alcoholic beverage. And unlike the strawberry flavor, the sweetness here actually works.

Bottom Line:

Delicious. Sweet but not to its detriment. Among hard seltzers, and I’ve ranked them all, CACTI Pineapple lands amongst the very best, flavor-wise.

Grab a 9-pack case of CACTI here.

As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.

Strain Review — Chomp By Russ X Wonderbrett Might Be The Best ‘Studio Weed’ Out There

March 31, 2021 by newhiphopnews

Russ gave his legion of fans insane, crazy bars on his 2020 EP Chomp. Now he’s offering straight gas with his weed line, Chomp by Russ x Wonderbrett. It’s the exact same strain the rapper smoked while creating the aforementioned project’s lush offerings — five songs featuring elite hip-hop lyricists Benny The Butcher, Busta Rhymes, KXNG Crooked, and Black Thought, alongside DJ Premier and… the list goes on.

In collaboration with Brett Feldman and Cameron Damwijk — founders and cultivars of West Coast cannabis brand Wonderbrett — Russ’s cannabis line is a chance for the 28-year-old artist to offer fans a glimpse inside the Chomp creation experience. It’s also the kind of marijuana that any chronic-loving musician would be hyped to smoke during studio sessions.

Since his SoundCloud beginnings, Russ has been in complete control of his career and has become the obvious example of what it means to work independently in the music industry in the digital age. Releasing as many mixtapes as he has and as dedicated to the craft as he is, launching a weed strain (that won’t leave you slumped) with one of the most reputable cannabis companies in the game feels like it was always in the cards. The point being: it’s a good fit.

When the perfect opportunity to dive into the cannabis business arrived, Russ chose to produce a strain that was something that he enjoys himself. And that meant a balanced strain where users could avoid both sleepiness and overthinking.

“I’m not a heavy smoker who’s just gonna sit around and smoke all day but oftentimes in the studio I enjoy experiencing an alternative yet still tuned in perspective, so keeping a joint of something productive nearby comes in handy,” Russ stated in a press release. “I might as well control what’s in the joint so that’s what I’ve done here with Wonderbrett.”

Feldman added, “The result is a great introductory high that really serves to enlighten and inspire artists to create. It doesn’t give you a couch lock effect.”

The strain itself was created with a male from Wonderbrett’s OZK stable and crossed into a Cookies & Cream female. From there they went through 20 seedlings and settled on phenotype No. 4. Currently, Chomp is only available at Stiiizy — a dispensary located in Downtown Los Angeles. But the brand has promised that new outlets will be added on the daily (stay up to date here), including the Wonderbrett flagship dispensary, launching in LA’s Fairfax District later this year.

Chomp by Russ x Wonderbrett dropped on Monday, March 29th, and we tested it that day in both its flower and pre-roll forms. Check out our review below.

The Products & Presentation

1g CHOMP x Wonderbrett Pre-Roll & ⅛ CHOMP x Wonderbrett Box

Strain: Hybrid

Dominant Terpenes: Limonene, Humulene, Linalool, Caryophyllene, and Pinene

THC: 22.82%

CBD: .06%

Retail Price: ⅛ CHOMP x Wonderbrett Box for $60, ⅛ CHOMP x Wonderbrett Bag for $45, 1g CHOMP x Wonderbrett Pre-Roll for $15.

The Experience

First of all, the packaging. The design. The satin box. The gilded press. The snarling dog, showing its gnashing teeth. The rich, red, gold, and black colorway. The whole Chomp x Wonderbrett branding sets the tone for an opulent affair.

Though I tried Chomp as both flower and as a pre-roll, the experiences were somewhat different. First, let’s talk about what each product has to offer and then what made them different for me.

The pre-roll came prepared inside of a plastic tube container, emblazoned with Russ’s signature Chomp logo and necessary cannabis factoids. Once the top came off and the pre-roll slid into my hand, I was dealing with a Raw cone tightly packed with herb. The light up and pull was smooth to start, then I felt an immediate head rush followed by my nose feeling a bit spicy. This was just the very beginning of what would turn into an intense cerebral high.

After a few minutes, the stinging I felt in my nose disappeared and what arrived was a euphoric sense of happiness and urge to do something. Anything.

Slight overthinking did rear its ugly head, yet the happiness and excitement I was feeling had me floating above it all. Once the high fully set in, I became very grateful and happy — living in the moment. It felt as if all my senses opened up, making all of my perceptions more clear. Not to mention, I had full confidence in my thoughts and wasn’t judging myself for every little thing.

At this point, it’s clear why Russ would dub this as “studio weed” and why sharing a name with his Chomp EP was a necessity.

When it came time to explore the flower option I was met with the soft, sweet aroma of citrus and nuts, and frosted nugs inside a dark plastic container. I love an icy nug and Chomp is fully iced out. The flower itself was pretty rigid to the touch but strong and not brittle.

Once I packed out a raw cone with the minced Chomp nugs and lit it, the immediate head rush and nose-tingling occurred just like with the pre-roll. Once the high settled in though, the happiness I felt with the pre-roll was more extreme, if perhaps more chaotic. Maybe it’s the way I packed it that made the experience different, but I was laughing at everything when I smoked the flower and fell into a fit of laughter more than once. It really made my day fun and gave my mind the freedom for all of my ideas to flow without the weird voice of judgment that I get when smoking Sativa.

The Bottom Line

Chomp is definitely a strain best-suited for catching a late-night vibe at the studio or as a solo mid-day high if you’re a creative working from home. I can also see this as being a great strain to smoke in social settings and, of course, while listening to music. It’s a happy, relaxing herb that gets the creative juices flowing.

Action Bronson’s ‘F*ck That’s Delicious’ Returns For An Independently Produced Season 5

March 17, 2021 by newhiphopnews

There are two ways of looking at Action Bronson’s transformation during the quarantine. You could say he’s experienced some tremendous weight loss, but I prefer to think of it as him making health gains. The Queens, New York chef-turned-rapper focused on making some big life changes thanks to the pandemic shutdown, and he appears delighted to show them off in the season five premiere of his now independently-produced food travel show, F*ck That’s Delicious.

You could call Bronson a prophet of sorts watching this season. He was one of many nationally-known artists harping on ownership and diverse revenue streams pretty early on in the blog era/streaming revolution. He did the latter by starting F*ck That’s Delicious in partnership with Viceland, but he insisted on ensuring the former, which allowed him to retain the show and move it online, which further secured the additional outlet as live touring shut down across America. It’s a pretty impressive thing.

In the first episode of the new season, he cooks up stuffed, Sicilian-style calamari with his trainer outside the gym and details his commitment to transforming his body and getting healthy. His progress is stupendous; he looks way different than he did when he was promoting last year’s Only For Dolphins. He and trainer Dave Paladino talk about how his efforts over the last five months may have saved his life. Then, as only befits the man named Bam Bam Baklava, they eat good.

Watch the season premiere of F*ck That’s Delicious above.

Elon Musk Made A Club-Ready Song About NFTs And Is Selling It As An NFT

March 16, 2021 by newhiphopnews

It’s only been a few weeks since “NFT” became the new buzzword, and many people have already capitalized on them. These non-fungible tokens are being used to sell digital artwork at a steep price. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is selling the first-ever tweet as an NFT and Grimes made $6 million in one day by selling her artwork on an NFT marketplace. Now following in Grimes’ footsteps, Elon Musk is breaking into the NFT industry through music.

The Tesla CEO and billionaire released an EDM track this week about NFTs, which he’s selling as an NFT. It’s only fitting that the track is techno, as Musk recently officially dubbed himself the “Technoking of Tesla.” The song itself mostly instrumental, but it does have a few NFT-related lyrics: “NFT for your vanity / Computers never sleep / It’s verified / It’s guaranteed.” Just hours after the song was posted for sale on Valuables, a website hosted by Cent, the highest bid was already for $1.1 million.

I’m selling this song about NFTs as an NFT pic.twitter.com/B4EZLlesPx

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 15, 2021

While the billionaire is trying to capitalize on the NFT craze, some of his followers are joining him. “I’m selling this screenshot of Elon’s song he’s selling about NFTs as an NFT as an NFT,” one user jokingly wrote underneath the song.

I’m selling this screenshot of Elon’s song he’s selling about NFTs as an NFT as an NFT pic.twitter.com/NcQK7N1jdf

— greg (@greg16676935420) March 15, 2021

Surprisingly, Musk is no stranger to music-making. Of course, it’d be hard not to be if your partner was Grimes. In early 2020, Musk made his EDM debut with the rhythmic track “Don’t Doubt Ur Vibe,” a follow-up to his heavily-AutoTuned rap single “RIP Harambe.”

Listen to Elon Musk’s NFT song above.

Lil Baby Is The Face Of Rap Snacks’ New Beverage Line, Oowee Lemonade

March 15, 2021 by newhiphopnews

Since they first launched in 1994, Rap Snacks have been giving nods to today’s biggest hip-hop artists on their chip bags. Rappers like Rick Ross, Cardi B, Migos, and Lil Yachty have their own flavors, but now, Rap Snacks is expanding their enterprise. For a new line of beverages, Rap Snacks tapped Lil Baby to be the face of their product.

Rap Snacks unveiled their line of Lil Baby Oowee Lemonade products Monday. The drink comes in five flavors: Fruit Punch, Strawberry Watermelon, Mango Pineapple, Blueberry, and Sweet Tea. Along with featuring Lil Baby on the wrapper, a portion of the proceeds from Oowee Lemonade will be donated to the organizations Atlanta Children’s Center and Covenant House in Atlanta.

Lil Baby’s Rap Snacks beverage line “Oowee Lemonade” will be in stores soon. Which flavor are you trying first? pic.twitter.com/qkYhFAw5jp

— Rap All-Stars (@RapAllStars) March 15, 2021

About his endeavor, Lil Baby called the Rap Snacks partnership “life-changing.” “I know my fans are going to love this line of Oowee Lemonades,” he said. “Rap Snacks are about hip-hop culture, I’m about the culture, and I’m excited that proceeds from every purchase are a ‘give back’ to help our communities. It’s exciting to be a part of something that will lift people from my hometown and nationally through the BossUp Foundation. It’s life-changing—I’ve never been a part of anything like this before.”

Echoing the rapper’s statement, CEO of Rap Snacks James Lindsay said: “We’re so excited to make this announcement after Lil Baby’s show stopping appearance at the Grammys. This extension of his partnership with us will connect with his growing fanbase the world over. We are the only company to feature hip-hop icons in association with our products. Our lemonade is a great-tasting product. We’ve combined flavors that haven’t been done before, and we’re expanding our market.”

Check out the new products above.

Snoop Dogg Is Releasing Another 19 Crimes Wine, This Time A Rosé

March 15, 2021 by newhiphopnews

It’s been nearly a year since Snoop Dogg first unveiled his years-in-the-making partnership with Australian winemakers 19 Crimes. He released his Snoop Cali Red bottle last summer, a wildly successful blend that Uproxx named “impeccably smooth.” Now, Snoop returned to announce he has another wine in the works.

The rapper once again teamed up with 19 Crimes wine, this time to create a fruity rosé. Named Snoop Cali Rosé, the new wine has tasting notes of fresh raspberry, strawberry and red cherry, and blends together Zinfandel, Grenache and Pinot Noir.

Speaking about the new bottle, Snoop said:

“We did it big with 19 Crimes Cali Red, so you know we had to do it again – and this time, I was thinking pink. I can’t wait for everyone to sip on my Snoop Cali Rosé and bring those fresh feels from spring into summer and beyond. I hope when you open a bottle of this wine you take a little mind trip to my Cali home. This is how we Rosé the Snoop Dogg way!”

Echoing Snoops statement, Treasury Wine Estates marketing vice president John Wardley said: “Snoop has been a dream collaborator that has taken 19 Crimes Snoop Cali Red to the top of the charts as the no. 1 Wine Innovation of 2020. We can’t wait for this second release to hit our loyal 19 Crimes fan base and see how they Rosé with Snoop Cali Rosé. This is 19 Crimes’ first California rosé and we are already seeing high demand from our retail partners to get it in store as soon as we possibly can.”

Snoop Cali Rosé is available now in the US. Get it here.

The Best Documentaries On Netflix Right Now

March 8, 2021 by newhiphopnews

Last Updated: March 8th

Streaming video is the best thing that’s ever happened to documentaries. People who would never have paid for a ticket to a theatrical nonfiction film are now, thanks to Netflix’s robust selection, scarfing down the stuff by the barrel. But where to start among the masses? Here are 25 of the best documentaries on Netflix right now to get you going, covering a variety of themes and real stories.

Fyre (2019)

Run Time: 97 min | IMDb: 7.3/10

Even if you’ve already witnessed the madness of this real-life horror story over on Hulu, you should see it again on Netflix. Hulu’s Fyre Fraud feels like more of a thinkpiece directed at the millennials who were suckered into buying tickets to a luxurious music fest on a secluded island in the Bahamas. Netflix’s Fyre does a better job of placing you in the action, giving you a real feel for the chaos and an understanding of how so many people could’ve been roped into this doomed venture.

Add To Netflix Queue

Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé (2019)

Run Time: 137 min | IMDb: 8/10

Beyoncé’s history-making Coachella performance was enough to temporarily rename the music festival Beychella last year, and now fans who couldn’t afford to see Queen Bee perform live get a backstage pass to the show with this doc. Are there killer performances, musical mash-ups, and dance routines? Sure. But what really makes this music doc stand-out besides the talent of its star is the intimate look fans are given into Beyoncé’s personal life, from her surprise pregnancy to her struggle to get in shape before the event and all the in-between madness and heartbreak.

Add To Netflix Queue

Get Me Roger Stone (2017)

Run Time: 82 min | IMDb: 7.4/10

To understand the enigma that was the Trump campaign, one must first understand the man behind the historic presidential run. Roger Stone is a well-connected lobbyist, a Republican political trickster responsible for the campaigns of former presidents like Richard Nixon and Ronal Reagan. He’s well-versed in navigating morally-murky waters to help his horse win the race, and we see him do just that in this doc, which follows the mogul over a five-year period as he crafts Trump’s winning-campaign.

Add To Netflix Queue

Team Foxcatcher (2016)

Run Time: 90 min | IMDb: 7.3/10

One of the strangest, most tragic sports stories in history is that of professional wrestler Dave Schulz and his friend, John du Pont. Du Pont was heir to the multi-million dollar Du Pont family fortune and used his inheritance to fund a professional wrestling team with the hopes of competing in the Olympics and other prestigious sports events. Mark Schulz was a wrestler struggling to get out of the shadow of his older brother’s more promising career. The two were roped into du Pont’s scheme, training wrestlers for him, but the partnership quickly soured and led to du Pont murdering Dave Schultz before barricading himself in his family compound to avoid arrest. It’s chilling, bizarre, and all the more riveting because of it.

Add To Netflix Queue

The Battered Bastards Of Baseball (2014)

Run Time: 80 min | IMDb: 8/10

Another sports doc, this one about a rag-tag group of baseball players in Oregon, feels decidedly more fun than its wrestling counterpart. The doc follows the Portland Mavericks, a defunct minor league baseball owned by actor Bing Russell that played for five seasons in the Class A-Short Season Northwest League. Kurt Russell, Bing’s son, also played on the team and served as its vice president. The film charts the Maverick’s origins, from underdogs to anti-establishment heroes.

Add To Netflix Queue

Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell (2021)

Run Time: 97 min | IMDb: 7/10

Compiled from rare home videos from Christopher “Biggie” Wallace’s best friend, Damion “D-Roc” Butler, this revealing doc gives fans a different look at the iconic rapper. Sean “Diddy” Combs and Biggie’s mom also give interviews, detailing parts of Biggie’s life we didn’t know about, but the most compelling footage comes from D-Roc’s amateur videos. These clips give us an unfiltered look at a man who would become a legend.

Add To Netflix Queue

13th (2016)

Run Time: 100 min | IMDb: 8.2/10

This 2016 documentary from Ava DuVernay won an Emmy and was nominated for an Oscar during awards season two years ago. The film chronicles the justice system’s abuses against black people, making a case for institutionalized racism being a problem in America that’s only emboldened by the prison cycle. DuVernay boldly explores how prisons and detention centers are making a profit off of free prison labor, most of it done by black men which begs the question, is slavery really dead?

Add To Netflix Queue

Taylor Swift: Miss Americana (2020)

Run Time: 85 min | IMDb: 7.4/10

Let’s be honest, Taylor Swift could’ve delivered a glossy, stylized, superficial doc about her life to promote her latest album, and her rabid fanbase would’ve eaten it up. Instead, the pop star took a risk and gave filmmakers no-holds-barred access to her personal and professional life, offering up intimate interviews with herself and her family, detailing difficult struggles with body dysmorphia and eating disorders, allowing cameras inside her sexual assault trial, revealing her mother’s cancer diagnosis, and unearthing home video footage of her youth to create a fuller picture of herself. It’s a film that reveals the human underneath the icon. It’s bold, brutally honest, and some of Swift’s best work yet.

Add To Netflix Queue

Chasing Coral (2017)

Run Time: 93 min | IMDb: 8.1/10

Few environmental warrior films do more for the cause than Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral. The doc rounds up a team of scientists, photographers, and divers from around the world to draw attention to an environmental crisis we’ve never seen before — the vanishing of the world’s coral reefs. It works on two levels: By giving us an underwater adventure that attempts to shed light on the mysteries of the deep and highlighting a problem we can see with our own eyes. There’s no denying this one, no looking away, and Orlowski’s crew takes full advantage of that.

Add To Netflix Queue

Casting JonBenet (2017)

Run Time: 80 min | IMDb: 6.2/10

’90s crime nostalgia is alive and well in this pseudo-doc from director Kitty Green. Everyone knows how tiny pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey died — bludgeoned to death in the basement of her family home — so Green is less interested in rehashing the investigation into the little girl’s death and more interested in reenacting her life and final moments. To do this, she enlists actors from the area where the family lived, all hoping to play JonBenet or her parents in an upcoming production. Over the course of the film, these thespians are forced to confront the reality of the Ramsey family’s situation which in turn helps viewers to take a look under the surface of this tabloid trauma.

Add To Netflix Queue

Athlete A (2020)

Run Time: 103 min | IMDb: 7.7/10

This timely doc gives us a look at the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal that rocked the world of gymnastics just two years ago from the point of view of reporters at the Indianapolis Star in charge of exposing it. A cover-up spanning two decades and involving higher-ups at both US Gymnastics and Michigan State where Nassar served as a physician and professor, this revealing investigation into a sinister culture that’s hidden behind the success of its top female athletes makes you rethink everything you thought about the Olympic dream.

Add To Netflix Queue

American Factory (2019)

Run Time: 115 min | IMDb: 7.6/10

his marks the first documentary to come from Netflix’s high-profile producing deal with Barack and Michelle Obama. The film takes a hard look at what happened to a General Motors plant in Ohio when it was closed down during the 2008 financial crisis, causing 2,000 workers to lose their jobs and destroying the small town of Moraine, Ohio. Things only get more complicated when a Chinese billionaire comes to town to transform the plant into a glass-making facility, promising thousands of new jobs before cultural divides threaten to derail the whole thing. It’s a fascinating view of consumerism, the American workforce, culture clashes, and how people can connect with each other despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Add To Netflix List

Shirkers (2018)

Run Time: 97 min | IMDb: 7.5/10

In 1992, Sandi Tan, along with her friends, made Singapore’s first indie film. She wrote and starred in it, a project called Shirkers, her two girlfriends produced and edited it, and a man named George Cardona directed. Cardona vanished one day, taking all the film materials with him, and propelling Tan on a decades-long journey to find the truth. It’s an engrossing study in betrayal and the dangers of collaboration, and it works mostly because Tan approaches it from a true-crime mystery angle, stripping it of any nostalgia that might tint her lense.

Add To Netflix Queue

One of Us (2017)

Run Time: 95 min | IMDb: 7.1/10

This gripping documentary confronts some hard truths about religion: its power to unite and its power to divide. Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady follow three members of New York’s notoriously insular Hasidic community as they try to break free from their religion while holding onto their families and sense of belonging.

Add To Netflix List

Icarus (2017)

Run Time: 121 min | IMDb: 8/10

Bryan Fogel’s Academy Award-winning documentary Icarus wasn’t supposed to involve Russians and doping scandal and cover-ups. Fortunately for Fogel, when the filmmaker decided to test his mettle by competing in one of the toughest cycling competitions in the world and chose to dope to help his chances, he ended up meeting Russian scientist, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory. The result is this nearly 90-minute film that chronicles Russia’s extensive history with doping and Rodchenkov’s fight for his life after he blows the whistle on the country’s bad practices.

Add To Netflix Queue

Via https://uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/netflix-amandaknox.jpg wp-image-1850380

Amanda Knox (2016)

Run Time: 92 min | IMDb: 7/10

It seems as though we’re all now more aware than ever of how utterly screwed any of us can be in an instant if the system places us in its crosshairs for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and not behaving in a way perceived to be “normal” in the immediate aftermath. Recent true crime documentaries like The Staircase, Making a Murderer and Serial have certainly played a part in illuminating this frightening and unfortunate slice of reality. We can now add Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn’s Amanda Knox to that list. Prepare to be terrified and infuriated as the filmmakers detail how an overzealous Italian prosecutor and a global tabloid press thirsty for a sensational story joined forces to wreck a young woman’s life, largely for their own benefit. As Daily Mail journalist Nick Pisa freely admits on camera — without any trace of remorse or shame — about his work covering the case, “A murder always gets people going… And we have here this beautiful, picturesque hilltop town in the middle of Italy. It was a particularly gruesome murder; throat slit, semi-naked, blood everywhere. I mean, what more do you want in a story?”

Add To Netflix Queue

Abducted in Plain Sight (2017)

Run Time: 91 min | IMDb: 6.8/10

Netflix delivers another worthy installment in the true crime series with this truly bizarre tale of a naive, church-going family and the man who preyed upon them. The Brobergs lived in a small town in Idaho with their three young daughters when they met Robert Berchtold, a seemingly-nice family man who doted on the girls, in particular, a 12-year-old Jan Broberg. Over time, Berchtold began grooming Jan and manipulating her parents, engaging in sexual acts with both her father and mother to cause a rift in the family before kidnapping her and brainwashing her into compliance. This saga went on for years and as strange as it sounds, nothing can prepare you for hearing the first-hand account of how this sociopath destroyed this loving family.

Add To Netflix Queue

Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017)

Run Time: 94 min | IMDb: 7.8/10

This documentary features never-before-seen footage of Jim Carrey in character as Andy Kaufman on the set of his 1999 film Man on the Moon. Directed by Chris Smith, the film shows Carrey, who was a celebrated comedic actor at the time, going method for his dramatic role as the brilliant on-stage comedian. There’s plenty of behind-the-scenes drama on this one, including Carrey’s backstage antics while shooting the movie, but what’s really interesting about the film is watching the actor’s thorough process and how he’s approached his colorful careers.

Add To Netflix Queue

The Great Hack (2018)

Run Time: 114 min | IMDb: 7/10

We live in a world connected with most of our interactions happening online. It’s great but, as this doc shows, it’s also terrifying. Terrifying because the way our data changes hands so quickly and indiscriminately — as long as companies shell out the cash for it — skirts all kinds of privacy laws and moral boundaries. This doc, told from the perspective of a journalist attempting to get his search data, the enormous fight with big tech to do it, and how his journey connects to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that may have influenced multiple elections in the States and abroad, is full of fascinating information and shocking tell-alls that could bring this whole internet empire down if people finally decide to start listening.

Add To Netflix List

Knock Down The House (2019)

Run Time: 87 min | IMDb: 6.9/10

This political doc made its way from Sundance to Netflix and we couldn’t think of a better time to watch it than leading up to the 2020 election. It follows the grassroots campaign of the right’s favorite punching bag, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, showcasing her charisma and approachability while also diving into more intimate parts of her life, like her relationship with her late father. It’s a feel-good story from Capitol Hill and really, we need more of that.

Add To Netflix Queue

Blackfish (2013)

Run Time: 83 min | IMDb: 8.1/10

The film that turned the tide of public opinion on Sea World and convinced Pixar to change the ending of Finding Dory, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s animal rights muckraker is more than just 83 minutes of theme=park shaming. In telling the story of Tillikum, the psychologically damaged orca who spent his life in captivity and was involved in the deaths of three people, the movie is an elegy for the freedoms that marine creatures like him were once able to enjoy. Is there an ethical way to view creatures like Tillikum up close and personal, and if so, should we trust a private company to deliver it to us?

Add To Netflix Queue

Extremis (2016)

Run Time: 24 min | IMDb: 7.3/10

Clocking in at 24 minutes, the Oscar-nominated Extremis really would only work as a short, as its subject matter is almost unbearably heavy. Following terminal patients, their families, and their doctors, the tearjerker zeros in on the decision that many people are forced to make: whether to end a life or keep struggling to hold on. Netflix’s first foray into short documentary, it’s raw insight that can be rough for anyone who has been in similar shoes or spent any time facing dire choices in a hospital.

Add To Netflix Queue

What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)

Run Time: 101 min | IMDb: 7.6/10

The alternately revolutionary and dispiriting saga of a combative, unapologetic and astoundingly gifted soul singer, Liz Garbus’s doc is a powerful rendering of the struggles Nina Simone faced throughout her career: the ways she became trapped in downward spirals, first of spousal abuse and then of bipolar disorder; and of her desperate, all-consuming urge to affect change on the country during the Civil Rights era. What happened? Watch for yourself.

Add To Netflix Queue

The Dawn Wall (2017)

Run Time: 100 min | IMDb: 8.1/10

We’re not sure why watching human beings dangling thousands of feet in the air with no safety net or cable cord to tether them to Earth is so irresistible, but it is, and this doc about free climber Tommy Caldwell and climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson might be Netflix’s most bingeable adventure flick. The two men attempt to scale the impossible 3000ft Dawn Wall of El Capitan, the Everest for free climbers, and if you can stomach over an hour of near-fatal slips, trips, and falls, this is the doc for you.

Add To Netflix Queue

The Bleeding Edge (2018)

Run Time: 99 min | IMDb: 8/10

Warning: Netflix’s The Bleeding Edge will seriously piss you off. It might also make you swear off doctors for the rest of your life. The film is a deep dive into the medical device industry and the dangers that lurk there for unassuming patients. Like the pharmaceutical industry, there are few laws regulating the creation and implementation of medical devices — think everything from birth control to orthopedic instruments — and the doc shows how this is negatively affecting millions of Americans every year from the women unknowingly sterilized by an IUD device to a doctor whose own ortho-device slowly poisoned him. It’s a frustrating watch, but a necessary one.

Add To Netflix Queue

Recent Changes Through February 2021:
Added: Blackfish
Removed: Catfish