After an almost two-decade-long affair with the plant, Chicago rapper, actor and activist Vic Mensa has launched a legal, equity-focused cannabis company of his own, 93 Boyz.
“I've been involved with cannabis for most of my life, dating all the way back to age 11 when I first started smoking. Around age 15 I started selling cannabis and smoking less, for entrepreneurial reasons, as well as this being the time in my life when I first started to experience acute anxiety and was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder,” explains the artist – who recommends people wait until the legal age at their respective jurisdictions before trying cannabis.
Later in his teens, Vic stopped selling weed as music became his primary focus. He also started smoking “heavily.” In recent years, he became involved once again in buying and selling weed, “before stepping fully into the recreational cannabis industry.”
According to Vic, the decision to launch 93 Boyz stemmed from a desire to keep his “first hustle.” He jokes “Before I ever sold a rap, I sold an eighth,” adding, “the recreational market is brand new in Illinois and I've been working to enter it from its inception.”
‘A Completely Better Lifestyle Decision’
“I think cannabis should be federally legal because it’s a literal plant from the earth with enormous healing capabilities. All plant medicine should be decriminalized,” Vic argues when prompted about weed’s illegality.
In his view, “cannabis is a completely better lifestyle decision than alcohol, although I hold no judgment and believe in everything in moderation. However, if one was to assess the most damaging decisions made in life, I think you would find that very often alcohol was not only involved but a motivating factor.”
Beyond recreation, cannabis plays an important role in Vic’s creative process. In fact, he assures cannabis has often been “instrumental” to his writing process. “I believe weed opens the creative channels for certain free associations to be made leading to some brilliant abstraction.”
The herb is also an important part of the culture Vic lives, breathes and thrives in: hip-hop.
Cannabis and hip-hop culture are intrinsically intertwined, he states. “Hip-hop being the most potent form of communication on the planet and the primary export of the black American diaspora.”
93 Boyz - COURTESY
As he digs deeper into the issue, the artist draws some parallels between hip-hop culture and jazz culture. “If you understand the history, hip-hop is in many ways an extension of jazz; jazz musicians being some of the first to sing about, and be associated with cannabis. It was precisely this association that influenced the racist criminalization of cannabis in the first place, creating the false ‘Reefer Madness’ narrative.”
And he adds: “In many ways, hip-hop artists have carried the torch lit by the jazz musicians near the turn of the century, going from being many of the most recognizable supporters of cannabis to now being some of the biggest names in the legal industry.”
Still, for Vic, it’s all about that rap – and all that jazz.
“If I could share a joint with anyone dead or alive, I think it would be 2pac,” he shares. “He's probably the reason I first started making music and I would just love to talk to him about everything, from the Black Panther Party to his creative process to collective economics.”
93 Boyz: A Black-Owned, Equity-Focused Venture
93 Boyz is the first Black-owned-and-led adult-use cannabis company in the state of Illinois, Vic assures. “We were actually the first Black-owned brand in Illinois stores when we dropped; no one can point to a Black-owned brand in Illinois that was in stores before us.”
This means that, at its core, the company will focus on reinvestment in the communities and individuals that have been historically and disproportionately affected by “outdated laws, prejudices and assumptions regarding cannabis consumption.” Ultimately, the brand seeks to elevate the underserved “while also lifting spirits via the headiest product available in the state.”
Jet Fuel OG - 93 BOYZ
Among the community-based initiatives that the brand will be undertaking is a partnership with Books Before Bars, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing books to underserved Illinois prison libraries, providing inmates with potentially transformative resources.
“At the core of the ethos of 93 Boyz is a socially minded spirit; portions of all of our proceeds go to giving back to the community. The first program we're starting with is called Books Before Bars; sending a large number of books into Cook County Jail,” Vic says. “As an industry, I believe the tax revenue generated from cannabis should be used as reparations to the communities most impacted by the war on drugs - like literal cash payment reparations, subsidized housing, education, everything.”
In its pursuit to become a company focused on holistic good, 93 Boyz has also joined forces with aeroponic cannabis cultivator aeriz to provide sustainable and environmentally friendly products from plant to person.
As a company representative expounds, “aeroponics is a cultivation method to grow product without the use of soil or an aggregate medium.”
The product line includes flower, prerolls and strain-specific vape cartridges, encompassing a range of different options from sativa to indica to custom hybrid blends.
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This article was originally published on Forbes and appears here with permission.
