Berner (rapper)

A Sunset District native, Berner attended Galileo Academy of Science and Technology before dropping out. His mother was an office worker and his father was a chef at a Mexican restaurant on Fillmore Street.[7] When Berner was 13, the family moved to Arizona, where his father planned to open a restaurant. During high school, Berner began battle rapping and in 2006 he released his first mixtape, Dirty Sneakers...Plenty Ways to Get It.[7]

After forming his own label, Bern One Entertainment in 2007, Berner released his debut album, Track Money & Pack Money, with Equipto. His first solo album, Weekend at Bernie's arrived in 2009, along with four other albums.[8]

In March 2012, Berner signed to Wiz Khalifa's Taylor Gang Records. Urban Farmer, Berner's first collection to be released on Taylor Gang Records, was released on October 2, 2012. In 2013, Berner embarked performed on the "Under the Influence of Music Tour" alongside Khalifa, A$AP Rocky, Trinidad Jame$ and Joey Bada$$. In 2015, Berner released Contraband, a collaborative album with Cam'ron, as well as Drought Season 3 with deceased rapper The Jacka. In 2016, Berner released the solo album Hempire, also producing a 4/20 show at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium with a lineup that included Cypress Hill, Juicy J, Dizzy Wright, J Boog, Kool John, and Berner.[8][9]

Urban Farmer, another of Berner's albums, features Iamsu! from The HBK Gang on two tracks; and the Jacka, Rydah J. Klyde and San Quinn on 21 Gunz.[10]

Berner's single, 20 Lights reached number 95 on the Billboard 200 chart. It was released on January 6, 2015. "Best Thang Smokin" is the lead single in Berner's album Hempire, released April 1, 2016.[11]

On May 4, 2019, he released the album El Chivo.

Berner began working in the cannabis industry at age 18 at a San Francisco dispensary named The Hemp Center.[12] In the early 2000s he befriended a cultivator named Jai Chang (a.k.a. "Jigga"), who developed a strain of cannabis that he named "Girl Scout Cookies".[13] Berner and Chang began selling various strains that Chang developed to dispensaries, including Girl Scout Cookies.[13] After the Girl Scouts of the USA sent a cease and desist letter, they named their brand simply "Cookies".[13] Berner was also selling the strains to friends, including rapper Wiz Khalifa who he met in 2010.[12][13] Khalifa soon began mentioning Cookies in his rap songs, while Berner wore clothing bearing a Cookies logo in music videos that he appeared in.[12] Berner went on to develop a line of Cookies clothing wear and opened his first Cookies clothing store in San Francisco in 2015.[14] The first Cookies cannabis dispensary followed in 2018,[15] followed by the first on the East Coast opening in 2021.[16] By 2022 the number of dispensaries had grown to 49, to go along with clothing stores in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.[15][17]

In August 2022, Berner was the first cannabis executive to be featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine since it launched in 1917.[18] Forbes conservatively estimated the Cookies brand to be worth $150 million.[13]

Berner was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2021,[6] but it went into remission after chemotherapy.[19]

He has a daughter.[6]

• Berner on SoundCloud
• Taylor Gang profile