Berner | |
|---|---|
_Milam_Jr.jpg) Berner in 2019 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Gilbert Anthony Milam Jr. |
| Born | October 27, 1983[1][2] San Francisco, California, U.S.[3] |
| Genres | Hip hop |
| Occupation(s) |
|
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Labels |
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| Website | cookies.co cookiessf.com |
Gilbert Anthony Milam Jr. (born October 27, 1983), better known by his stage name Berner, is an American rapper and entrepreneur signed to Wiz Khalifa's Taylor Gang Entertainment. He has released over 40 albums, several of which have charted on Billboard's "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums" chart.[4] As an entrepreneur, he created the Cookies brand of cannabis products and clothing wear that formed out of San Francisco in the early 2010s.[5] The company has grown to include dozens of dispensaries across the United States and abroad, along with multiple clothing stores.[6]
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 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 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]
Berner was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2021,[6] but it went into remission after chemotherapy.[21]
He has a daughter and a newborn son. [6]
