This week, Ramon And Vlad go straight to the boulevard with Big Gipp of the Goodie Mob and founder of Gipp Goodies, to give us his high history and how cannabis influenced his music. Also, he tells us how he went from bringing a new style to the Atlanta music scene, to making a CBD company based out of his home state. He even drops a few hints of a new Goodie mob album alongside the Dungeon Family. We met Big Gipp outside the expo hall at MJBiz in Vegas 2018. We were basically the only people of color there at the moment so we instantly bonded, and from then on we knew we had each other's support!
Q: Tell us about Gipp Goodie
A: The whole thing with the cannabis brand is this. We were about to launch right when this shit hit (Covid-19), so I was just like let's hold it right quick, it's all good the cannabis business will never go nowhere. Just like California and Vegas, the rules are changing every five minutes, and the packaging changes and all that changes. so I was like when are we going to figure out what's going on, so with all that going on I was like "you know what one thing we don't have in the south is?" a CBD brand. So I switched my whole game and now we got a store opening up next month. We have the first Gipp Goodie store out of 5 in Columbus, Georgia, and the other 4 in Atlanta. I’m just going to take this CBD line and just run it. For me personally it's cool, I’m going to be at the forefront of the South getting in the cannabis game and I really believe that Atlanta is going to be an explosive market and it's going to be as big as LA.
Q: How do you feel about the music coming out during quarantine?
A: This is the only time in history that the music does not reflect the time. Y'all understand that children won't even have school no more for real, we are going to have to educate these kids for real now. If not, it's going to be a generation of dummies man, because the music they've been listening to the last five years, that shit is fourth-grade level. If it ain't got no booty attached to it shaking, it ain't saying too much. You got to understand that if everybody's going to feed the beast then at least I thank god for giving Goodie Mob a job right now. Because it's bigger than money, at the end of the day it's so funny to me because once you get a certain type of money, it don't matter no way.
Q: What do you see in the future of Cannabis for people of color?
A: I got into it with my little niece, she's been paying attention to me, so she was like "yo unc' I’m going to enroll in this cannabis university and learn how to trim and learn how to grow, and she went and got her education and graduated. She moved to Oklahoma and now she works for a dispensary out there. So I'm watching this and thinking this could really turn to a real career for a young person if you're paying attention to what's going on. To do it on the legal side instead of the hood, the hood is gonna always be there, the black market is gonna always be there but jail is too. and you got to do it right, you don't have to be greedy. The ones that lasted in the streets were the ones that weren't greedy, the ones that knew how to take care of people.
Q: Who has the best weed in the music industry?
A:Now when it comes to the cannabis in the game, when I met Cypress Hill, DJ Muggs. their weed was always on a level above everything I ever smoked. B-Real has been ahead, he's been Dr. Greenthumb since what, since his second or third album. So when we used to go to LA I used to be like yo this the first fucking weed that I smoked that hurt when you smoked it. It hurt! cause remember then they were cooking with the formaldehyde and all that so that shit was heavy, real heavy. B-Real and them and E40 man. E40 and his crew, in Seattle and the Bay they had the best weed, they were the first ones I seen, they used to hustle in the club with just a Newport box, the joints were so good they were selling $20 and $30 joints in the club back then, that was the 90s. we couldn't even get that weed.
Q: Who got you interested in the cannabis industry?
A: I’m going to tell you who even got me interested or even think on getting into the business. it was Corrupt. The first time I was in LA, Corrupt was like "Yo Gipp come to the studio," when I get to the studio he was like man I want you to be on this mixtape, it's called Moon Rocks. I was like "what the fuck is that?" He went to the net and showed me the first commercial they ever did with the moon rock just spinning and then they're pouring the hash on it and putting the oil on it. I thought damn that's some crazy ass shit. he said yeah it’s called moon Rocks, we created that shit me and Dr. zodiac. Imagine me doing this mixtape, 8 months later $8 million, that's how much they grossed. It took off within 3 or 4 months, by the 6th month it was $8 million in cash. That shit was so good they were able to split off into 3 different companies Corrupt was doing his thing, the real Moon Rocks over there, and Dr. Zodiac still out here going strong. I looked at it like I understand it now.
Q: Who do you think is doing it right in the cannabis industry?
A: You look around right now and the kings to me are B-Real and Berner ain't nobody messing with them. They repping the culture and they're good people. B-Real been had money this ain't shit, this is just another chapter in his life. Something he's always done, I know cause I've always been around. So for him to turn that to a full-fledged business and really to represent for the Latin community, that shit is beautiful. He's one of the ones really out there really doing something with that license and a lot of Blacks can't even get that license. So to see him doing that for the community and taking care of the brothers the way he's taking care of them, man that's how you do it. That's how Berner is doing it in the Bay, that's just how you do it. That's basically why I wanted to get into it, just because I've seen B-Real being able to take care of his people in a rightful way and it's legal compared to what we used to do in the hood, now he's giving you a real job with a W-9, that’s real.
