Gilbert Anthony Milam Jr. (born October 27, 1983), better known by his stage name Berner, is an American rapper and entrepreneur. As of 2024, he has released 22 solo albums, beginning with Dirty Sneakers... Plenty Ways to Get It (2007), and 29 collaborative projects, beginning with Track Money & Pack Money (2007) with fellow California rapper Equipto. He signed with Wiz Khalifa's Taylor Gang Entertainment in March 2018.
Four of his solo releases—the extended play 20 Lights (2015), and the albums Hempire (2016), Gotti (2021), and From Seed to Sale (2022)—have entered the Billboard 200, the latter peaked at number 20.[4] As an entrepreneur, he founded the cannabis brand Cookies in 2015; initially based in San Francisco, it has since expanded to service cannabis and clothing products internationally.[5][6]
Early life
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]
Musical career
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 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]
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.
Cookies cannabis brand
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 whom 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][14] Berner went on to develop a line of Cookies clothing wear and opened the first Cookies clothing store in San Francisco in 2015.[15] He also began opening Cookies dispensaries, with the first appearing in Los Angeles in 2018,[16] followed by the first on the East Coast opening in 2021.[17] Using a business model similar to franchising,[16] Cookies expanded to a total of 49 dispensaries by June 2022 to go along with "Cookies SF" clothing stores in San Francisco and Los Angeles.[14] A third clothing store also serving as a "Cookies University" was opened in Manhattan in October 2022, but was later repurposed into a dispensary.[18][19]
In August 2022, Berner was the first cannabis executive to be featured on the cover of Forbes magazine since it launched in 1917.[20]Forbes conservatively estimated the Cookies brand to be worth $150 million.[13]
By January 2024, Cookies had expanded to 70 dispensaries across the U.S., Canada, Israel, and Thailand, according to a profile of Berner in The New York Times Magazine.[16]
Personal life
Berner was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2021,[6] but it went into remission after chemotherapy.[21]
Berner first got married to April Martinez on January 15, 2022. They divorced by 2023.
He has a daughter with first unnamed girlfriend and a son born after he left his wife in 2023.[6] He has a second child on the way with current girlfriend Ashley Dee. They are set to get married in 2025.
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