Cannabis Legends: Wiz Khalifa

CANNABIS LEGENDS: WIZ KHALIFA

How Wiz Turned Kush, Music & a Friendship With Berner Into a Cannabis Empire

"Kush is my cologne." — Wiz Khalifa

Long before celebrity cannabis brands became common, Wiz Khalifa made weed part of his identity.

It was in the music. It was in the videos. It was part of the Taylor Gang lifestyle. And when Kush & Orange Juice dropped in 2010, Wiz wasn't just building one of hip-hop's most loyal fan bases — he was helping bring cannabis culture further into the mainstream.

But Wiz didn't stop at rapping about weed.

Behind the scenes, he was learning about the plant itself. One of the people helping teach him was another future cannabis icon: Berner.

That friendship would eventually help turn Wiz's personal taste in cannabis into Khalifa Kush — a strain created for him that grew into a cannabis brand carrying his name.

From mixtapes and smoke sessions to dispensary shelves and an international cannabis business, Wiz Khalifa's relationship with marijuana has followed nearly his entire rise to fame.

This is how Wiz became a Cannabis Legend.

BEFORE KHALIFA KUSH, THERE WAS KUSH & ORANGE JUICE

Before Wiz Khalifa had a cannabis brand carrying his name, he had already built an entire lifestyle around the plant.

Coming out of Pittsburgh, Wiz spent the late 2000s steadily building his audience through mixtapes, relentless touring and an increasingly recognizable laid-back style. Cannabis wasn't hidden from that image — it was right at the center of it.

Then came Kush & Orange Juice.

Released in April 2010, the mixtape became a defining moment in Wiz's career. Its hazy production, laid-back energy and cannabis-heavy lifestyle helped turn him from a rising Pittsburgh rapper into an artist with a rapidly growing national following.

The project also helped establish something bigger than a collection of songs.

It helped define the Taylor Gang lifestyle.

For Wiz's fans, cannabis became intertwined with the music, fashion, touring and carefree attitude surrounding his movement. At a time when legal recreational cannabis hadn't yet arrived in any U.S. state, Wiz was openly making weed part of his public identity.

And he wasn't treating it like a temporary gimmick.

As Wiz's career exploded with records like "Black and Yellow," his connection to cannabis came with him. The bigger the stages became, the more recognizable that identity became too.

Years later, Kush & Orange Juice would remain so closely associated with Wiz that he returned to the concept with Kush + Orange Juice 2 in 2025 — fifteen years after the original mixtape.

But during Wiz's original rise, something else important was happening behind the scenes.

He wasn't only smoking cannabis.

He was beginning to learn it.

And one of the people who would help take that knowledge to another level was a Bay Area rapper, grower and entrepreneur named Berner.

That relationship would eventually lead to something Wiz's fans know simply as:

KK.

WIZ, BERNER & THE BEGINNING OF KK

As Wiz Khalifa's career was taking off, another relationship was developing that would become a major part of his cannabis story.

Berner wasn't just another rapper Wiz smoked with. He became one of his cannabis mentors.

The two connected around the beginning of Wiz's rise, bonding naturally over music and their shared obsession with cannabis. But Berner was already deeply involved in California's cannabis world and understood the plant on a level that went far beyond simply smoking it.

Wiz wanted to learn.

Over time, Berner introduced him to the deeper side of cannabis — including cultivation, genetics, breeding and the differences between phenotypes.

That education helped Wiz develop something very specific:

His own preferred cannabis.

Berner has recalled preparing bags specifically for Wiz and marking them "KK" — Khalifa Kush.

At first, KK wasn't designed to become some massive celebrity cannabis launch.

It was Wiz's weed.

The goal was to create cannabis that matched exactly what he liked to smoke: strong, flavorful and built around the kind of experience that had become synonymous with Wiz Khalifa himself.

That distinction is important.

Years before celebrity cannabis collaborations became an industry trend, Wiz and Berner were already working with growers and genetics because they genuinely cared about the plant.

Their friendship also grew beyond cannabis. Berner became closely associated with Taylor Gang, while Wiz continued supporting Berner as Cookies developed from underground California cannabis culture into an internationally recognized brand.

Eventually, both men would build major cannabis businesses of their own.

Berner had Cookies.

Wiz had Khalifa Kush.

And what began as two friends sharing their knowledge and love of cannabis became one of hip-hop's most important connections to the modern legal marijuana industry.

For Wiz, however, KK was still only the beginning.

THE BIRTH OF KHALIFA KUSH

For years, Khalifa Kush wasn't something fans could simply walk into a dispensary and buy.

KK was personal.

The cannabis had been developed around Wiz Khalifa's own preferences, with genetics selected and refined to create the type of flower he wanted to smoke himself.

According to Khalifa Kush, the original KK genetics were developed in the early 2010s and initially kept within Wiz's private circle.

But as Wiz's fame grew, so did the mythology surrounding his weed.

Fans heard him reference Khalifa Kush. They saw KK become part of the Taylor Gang world. The name was being built into cannabis culture before most consumers ever had an opportunity to actually try it.

Eventually, Wiz decided to turn that demand into a real business.

Khalifa Kush officially launched as a brand in 2014, beginning the transition from Wiz's personal cannabis into products intended for the legal market.

The original Khalifa Kush flower would later reach dispensary shelves, giving fans the opportunity to buy cannabis connected directly to the lifestyle Wiz had spent years building.

And that gave KK something most celebrity cannabis brands could never manufacture:

A story that existed before the product launch.

Wiz wasn't a celebrity suddenly attaching his name to weed because legalization created a new business opportunity.

His audience already associated him with cannabis.

They already knew the letters KK.

They already knew Kush & Orange Juice.

They already knew what Wiz represented.

Khalifa Kush simply turned that culture into a company.

Over time, the brand expanded beyond its original flower into a broader lineup of cannabis products and entered additional legal markets across the United States.

Eventually, that expansion would bring Khalifa Kush somewhere particularly important to Bud Rover readers:

Florida.

And when Wiz brought KK to the Sunshine State, he didn't quietly send products to dispensary shelves.

He came to Florida himself.

KHALIFA KUSH COMES TO FLORIDA

By 2022, Khalifa Kush was ready for one of America's largest medical cannabis markets.

Florida.

Khalifa Kush partnered with Trulieve to bring KK products to Florida medical marijuana patients, giving Wiz's brand a major presence in the Sunshine State.

For Wiz, this wasn't just another name on a growing list of markets.

He came to Florida himself.

In December 2022, Wiz Khalifa joined the launch celebration at Trulieve's South Beach location in Miami Beach, meeting fans as Khalifa Kush officially entered Florida's medical cannabis market.

The moment showed just how far KK had traveled.

What began years earlier as cannabis developed around Wiz's personal preferences had become a recognizable brand capable of launching across major legal cannabis markets.

And Florida patients weren't simply being introduced to another celebrity endorsement.

They were being introduced to a name Wiz had spent years building into his music and lifestyle.

Khalifa Kush had gone from something Wiz smoked to something his fans could legally buy.

The Florida expansion also demonstrated something important about the business Wiz and his team were building.

KK wasn't meant to remain a single strain with a famous rapper's name attached to it.

Khalifa Kush was becoming a larger cannabis company — expanding its products, entering new markets and carrying the Taylor Gang cannabis identity far beyond Pittsburgh and California.

And Florida wouldn't be the end of that expansion.

The brand Wiz once kept within his own circle was on its way around the world.

FROM KK TO A GLOBAL CANNABIS BRAND

Khalifa Kush didn't stop with one strain — and it didn't stop in Florida.

As legal cannabis markets expanded, Wiz and his team began taking the brand into new states while growing the KK name into a broader lineup of products.

The original Khalifa Kush flower remained at the center of the brand, but the lineup expanded to include products such as pre-rolls, concentrates, vapes and edibles, depending on the market.

And eventually, KK crossed international borders.

Khalifa Kush expanded beyond the United States into international cannabis markets, turning something originally created around one rapper's personal taste into a globally recognized cannabis name.

That evolution separates Wiz from many celebrities who entered cannabis after legalization started creating business opportunities.

Wiz already had the audience.

He already had the cannabis identity.

And most importantly, he already had KK.

For years, fans had heard Wiz talk about kush through his music, interviews and Taylor Gang lifestyle. By the time Khalifa Kush began expanding commercially, consumers didn't need an explanation for why Wiz Khalifa had a cannabis company.

It made sense.

That authenticity became one of the brand's biggest advantages.

There was no sudden transformation from celebrity to cannabis entrepreneur. Wiz's music career and cannabis career grew alongside each other.

The kid from Pittsburgh who built a following around mixtapes, touring and an unapologetic love for weed was now watching the same culture turn into an international business.

But Khalifa Kush is only part of Wiz Khalifa's impact.

Because when you look beyond the products and dispensary shelves, Wiz helped accomplish something much larger.

He helped change the way an entire generation looked at cannabis.

WIZ KHALIFA HELPED MAKE CANNABIS CULTURE MAINSTREAM

Khalifa Kush is a major part of Wiz Khalifa's cannabis legacy.

But his influence started long before there was a product sitting on a dispensary shelf.

For an entire generation of fans, Wiz made cannabis part of everyday culture.

He didn't whisper about smoking weed. He didn't separate it from his public image. Cannabis appeared throughout his music, videos, interviews, concerts and the entire Taylor Gang lifestyle.

And the timing mattered.

When Kush & Orange Juice arrived in 2010, recreational marijuana wasn't yet legal in a single U.S. state. Cannabis remained illegal federally, prohibition still dominated much of the country, and openly building a mainstream entertainment brand around marijuana carried considerably more stigma than it does today.

Wiz leaned into it anyway.

As his audience grew, millions of listeners watched a cannabis-loving Pittsburgh rapper go from mixtapes to arenas without abandoning the lifestyle that helped build his original following.

Then America began changing around him.

States started legalizing adult-use cannabis. Medical marijuana programs expanded. Dispensaries became legitimate businesses. Cannabis brands moved from underground markets into professionally operated storefronts.

And Wiz was already culturally positioned for that world.

KUSH WAS NEVER JUST MARKETING

That's one reason Khalifa Kush feels different from the wave of celebrity cannabis brands that followed legalization.

For Wiz, cannabis wasn't a new business category.

It was already part of the story.

The music came with it.

Taylor Gang came with it.

Kush & Orange Juice came with it.

KK came with it.

And eventually, the legal cannabis business caught up.

More than a decade after the original Kush & Orange Juice, Wiz was still carrying that identity forward — even returning to the project that helped define the era with Kush + Orange Juice 2 in 2025.

Very few artists have maintained such a consistent connection between their music, personal identity and cannabis for that long.

AN ENTIRE GENERATION GREW UP WITH WIZ

That's ultimately what makes Wiz Khalifa important to cannabis culture.

People who discovered Wiz as teenagers and young adults during the mixtape era grew up alongside enormous changes in America's relationship with marijuana.

They watched cannabis move toward legalization.

They watched dispensaries open.

They watched the industry become a multibillion-dollar legal market.

And throughout that transformation, Wiz Khalifa never stopped being Wiz Khalifa.

He smoked it.

He celebrated it.

He learned about it.

He created his own.

And then he built a business around it.

That's more than a celebrity endorsement.

That's a cannabis legacy.

WHY WIZ KHALIFA IS A CANNABIS LEGEND

Wiz Khalifa didn't discover cannabis when the industry became profitable.

Cannabis was there before the empire.

It was there during the Pittsburgh mixtape days.

It was there when Kush & Orange Juice helped turn Wiz into a national name.

It was there when he connected with Berner and started learning more about genetics, cultivation and the plant itself.

It was there when bags marked KK were still something meant for Wiz and his circle.

And it was there when Khalifa Kush finally made the jump from a personal strain to dispensary shelves.

Today, the cannabis world looks very different from the one Wiz entered.

Legal markets have expanded. Dispensaries operate across much of America. Cannabis companies have become major businesses, and celebrity brands are no longer unusual.

But Wiz was representing the culture before any of that was normal.

He didn't follow cannabis into the mainstream.

He helped bring it there.

From Kush & Orange Juice to Khalifa Kush, from smoking with Berner to building an international cannabis brand, Wiz Khalifa turned an authentic part of his life into something much bigger.

And more than 15 years after the mixtape that helped define his rise, one thing hasn't changed:

Wiz still loves his kush.

That's why Wiz Khalifa belongs among the Cannabis Legends.

FIND YOUR NEXT FAVORITE IN FLORIDA

Reading about Khalifa Kush is one thing. Finding your own favorite is another.

Whether Wiz's story made you curious about premium flower, new genetics or simply getting a better price on what you already smoke, Bud Rover tracks dispensaries, live deals and local options across every Florida hub.

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