Lil Wayne has gone and done exactly what we thought he may do…start his own cannabis brand; GKUA Ultra Premium. Joining the veritable bevy of celebrities with their own weed brands, Tunechi has made the decision to establish his brand in California. Keep in mind this is already where Berner, Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson, Wiz Khalifa, and Whoopi Goldberg all have thriving cannabis brands, per Complex. At least Wayne is known for being a fan of the herb before starting his brand, unlike Drake.
Wayne’s whole new brand is built around the concept of “get inspired.” Wayne said, “I used to just want to get high, now I smoke to get inspired.” He went on to say that “with GKUA, I’m sharing a feeling I love.” If you visit the new GKUA website, you’ll find a lot of fancy pictures, as well as three original GKUA strains. These are: Hollygrove (indica hybrid,) Uproar (sativa hybrid,) and GKUA VIP (sativa.)
If you click on each strain it describes the flower by its “vibe” and “essence,” never mentioning what the parent strains are, or what the dominant terpenes are. They also have product advertising for “THC vapes” that have zero mention of whether they’re distillate, live-resin, CO2, solventless, etc…are the people running this business even familiar with what the difference between all of these is? It almost seems like their branded vape batteries are more important than explaining what’s inside the cart.
Lil Wayne Launches Cannabis Brand—GKUA Ultra Premium
The next thing that has me worried is that there’s a lot of visual branding, but little-to-no information. The founder of the company is named Beau Golob, who has over 15 years of experience in marketing and media, but not in growing weed. The way everything is set up so far, it looks very flashy and clean. But, their site and social media lack the depth of information that would convince a regular cannabis consumer to buy into their products; because you know they’ll be expensive.
They also advertise that they’ll be working with some of the “highest natural levels of THC available,” in their flower that they don’t name the source of. Where is this weed coming from? Who has the growing license? Do they know anything about the entourage effect? Have any of the people running this business ever read about terpenes? Or even smoked weed for that matter?
I’m not trying to throw Lil Wayne under the bus. I’ve been a huge fan of his music my entire life. It’s just that this isn’t about him as a performer or his music—it’s about weed. And in California, weed is a pretty big deal. You have to come to the table with a quality product or the consumer will quickly recognize it as a ploy for attaching mids to a high-profile celebrity in order to justify high price-points.
There’s also a lot of advertising for their “VIP parties” and potentially winning a chance to chill with Weezy and friends. Is this about Wayne or the weed? No matter how you paint it—I’m skeptical of whether or not this will be good quality cannabis and not just another ploy to slang big, overly-priced bags of mids. Either way, you can be on the lookout for the first GKUA Ultra Premium drop in select dispensaries by following their socials.
Follow GKUA Ultra Premium On Instagram
