Berner

Gilbert Milam Jr. emerged from San Francisco, where he first took up rapping during his high-school years in the mid-2000s. He handled production and distribution himself for the 2007 debut mixtape Dirty Sneakers…Plenty of Ways to Get It. While cultivating his hip-hop presence, Milam logged extensive hours inside cannabis dispensaries fueled by his personal enthusiasm for marijuana; that same involvement eventually connected him with stoner-rap figure Wiz Khalifa. The 2012 signing to Khalifa’s Taylor Gang Records followed, along with tour dates alongside the label roster, before Urban Farmer—the rapper’s fourth project overall and first for the imprint—appeared. Outside music, Milam launched clothing lines and developed proprietary medical-marijuana strains through selective breeding.

A steady advocate for cannabis, he co-established Cookies, a retail operation offering both flower and related apparel and lifestyle goods that later scaled into multiple locations. Throughout the Cookies expansion he sustained an accelerated release schedule, frequently partnering with Larry June and Curren$y for as many as four projects annually while also issuing solo albums such as Gotti (2021), From Seed to Sale (2022), and Arrogance Is Ignorance (One Shot Kill) (2023). Additional joint efforts from the same period encompassed more than a dozen releases alongside the Jacka, B-Real, Cam’ron, Styles P, Young Dolph, and Mozzy. Within the 2010s he placed the Billboard-charting 20 Lights EP and the full-length Hempire on his own; collaborative titles included the Prohibition trilogy with B-Real, Contraband with Cam’ron, Vibes with Styles P, Tracking Numbers with Young Dolph, and Slimey Individualz with Mozzy. May 2019 brought the album El Chivo, which contained the single “Wassup” featuring Wiz Khalifa and Chevy Woods.

The ensuing decade opened with the 2020 Cooks & Orange Juice EP alongside Larry June and the full-length mixtape Respect the Connect with Cozmo. Gangster-themed 2021 output comprised the Paulie Cicero mixtape and the studio album Gotti; the latter housed the ensemble cut “Too Many Goats” with Rick Ross, Nas, Kevin Cossom, and Jadakiss, plus further appearances from Rod Wave, Future, Cozmo, and Wiz Khalifa. In 2022 Berner issued the tracks “Bomb Bay on My Back” and “Cookies Forever,” then delivered From Seed to Sale, which reached number 20 on the Billboard 200. His 2023 catalog added the solo album Arrogance Is Ignorance (One Shot Kill) and the joint set Trophies with Ohgeesy.