Berner (rapper)

Gilbert Anthony Milam Jr.(born October 27, 1983), better known by his stage nameBerner, is an American rapper and entrepreneur. As of 2024, he has released 22 solo albums, beginning withDirty Sneakers... Plenty Ways to Get It(2007), and 29 collaborative projects, beginning withTrack Money & Pack Money(2007) with fellow California rapper Equipto. He signed withWiz Khalifa'sTaylor Gang Entertainmentin March 2018.
Four of his solo releases—the extended play20 Lights(2015), and the albumsHempire(2016),Gotti(2021), andFrom Seed to Sale(2022)—have entered theBillboard200, the latter peaked at number 20.As an entrepreneur, he founded thecannabisbrand Cookies in 2015; initially based in San Francisco, it has since expanded to service cannabis and clothing products internationally.
ASunset Districtnative, Berner attendedGalileo Academy of Science and Technologybefore dropping out. His mother was an office worker and his father was a chef at a Mexican restaurant onFillmore Street.When Berner was 13, the family moved to Arizona, where his father planned to open a restaurant. During high school, Berner beganbattle rappingand in 2006 he released his first mixtape,Dirty Sneakers...Plenty Ways to Get It.
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'sarrived in 2009, along with four other albums.
In March 2012, Berner signed toWiz Khalifa'sTaylor 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$AP Rocky,Trinidad Jame$andJoey Bada$$. In 2015, Berner releasedContraband, a collaborative album withCam'ron, as well asDrought Season 3with deceased rapperThe Jacka. In 2016, Berner released the solo albumHempire, also producing a 4/20 show at theBill Graham Civic Auditoriumwith a lineup that included Cypress Hill, Juicy J, Dizzy Wright, J Boog, Kool John, and Berner.
Urban Farmer, another of Berner's albums, featuresIamsu!fromThe HBK Gangon two tracks; and the Jacka,Rydah J. KlydeandSan Quinnon21 Gunz.
Berner's single,20 Lightsreached number 95 on theBillboard200chart. It was released on January 6, 2015. "Best Thang Smokin" is the lead single in Berner's albumHempire, released April 1, 2016.
On May 4, 2019, he released the albumEl Chivo.
Berner began working in thecannabis industryat age 18 at a San Franciscodispensarynamed The Hemp Center.In the early 2000s he befriended a cultivator named Jai Chang (a.k.a. "Jigga"), who developed astrain of cannabisthat he named "Girl Scout Cookies".Berner and Chang began selling various strains that Chang developed to dispensaries, including Girl Scout Cookies.After theGirl Scouts of the USAsent acease and desistletter, they named their brand simply "Cookies".Berner was also selling the strains to friends, including rapperWiz Khalifawhom he met in 2010.Khalifa soon began mentioning Cookies in his rap songs, while Berner wore clothing bearing a Cookies logo in music videos that he appeared in.Berner went on to develop a line of Cookies clothing wear and opened the first Cookies clothing store in San Francisco in 2015.He also began opening Cookies dispensaries, with the first appearing in Los Angeles in 2018,followed by the first on theEast Coastopening in 2021.Using a business model similar tofranchising,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.A third clothing store also serving as a "Cookies University" was opened inManhattanin October 2022, but was later repurposed into a dispensary.
In August 2022, Berner was the first cannabis executive to be featured on the cover ofForbesmagazine since it launched in 1917.Forbesconservatively estimated the Cookies brand to be worth $150 million.
By January 2024, Cookies had expanded to 70 dispensaries across the U.S., Canada, Israel, and Thailand, according to a profile of Berner inThe New York Times Magazine.
Berner was diagnosed with stage 3colon cancerin 2021,but it went into remission after chemotherapy.
He has a daughter and a son born in 2023.