Rap music and cannabis are a marriage crafted in heaven, or hell depending on where your God lines up on the whole “getting high” thing.
With the uprising of recreational cannabis has come a plethora of celebrity strain releases. Some of them were obvious marketing ploys with no real foresight or follow through when it came to the actual weed being sold. Some of these collaborations, however, have been met with overwhelming positivity when it comes to the community response. If anyone remembers the Tenco Pink Zushi collab with Coi Leray, or the Knockout OG release from Mike Tyson’s brand, the general consensus on both was that it was fire flower with a big name behind it to fuel sales. In other words, when done correctly, celebrity rec weed can be a win-win for everybody involved.
Rick Ross, the rapper and millionaire teamed up with a Los Angeles-based brand called High Tolerance to bring his own line of celebrity flower to market. High Times had the opportunity to catch up with the boss himself and the High Tolerance guys to find out more about this collaboration and the strains they released, some of which also include collaborations with fellow rappers Jim Jones and Rich the Kid.
High Times: What has cannabis done for you, your life, your career as a rapper?
Rick Ross: Cannabis has helped me create the music because it’s always put me in the zone.
High Times: What does your strain, Collins Ave, make you feel like?
Rick Ross: It makes me feel like a Boss. It’s very uplifting, gets my vibes right. It gets me in the place I like.
High Times: What does it taste like?
Rick Ross: Real sweet, gassy. It’s the finest flower.
High Times: How do you like to consume it (blunts, joints, bongs etc)?
Rick Ross: Recently I’ve been doing the big joint in my new venture. I’ve been doing a couple bong rips.
High Times: Do you write and/or record your raps high?
Rick Ross: I’m always smoking that High Tolerance. I have a high tolerance. It helps me stay creative. It’s a big part of my music and my everyday life.
High Times: Does this help the creative process in your experience?
Rick Ross: Most definitely. High Tolerance gets me relaxed and focused at the same time and in the zone vibing.
High Times: What made you decide to bring Rich the Kid and Jim Jones in on this collaboration? What do they bring to the table for this experience you’re providing to people?
Rick Ross: I didn’t bring em but Manny the CEO is heavy in the culture. Everybody knows that High Tolerance got the finest flower and it was just natural for them to want their own collab. That’s what they do.
High Times: Why did you choose High Tolerance to create this strain with?
Rick Ross: High Tolerance has the finest flower and they’re the best in the game right now. Both on the East and West coasts. That’s the top shelf weed that real weed connoisseurs like.
High Times: Anything I didn’t ask you’d like to talk about in connection with this collaboration?
Rick Ross: We dropped Collins [Ave] and everyone loved it so much we had to come back with more so we dropped Boss Pop and Belair Pop. You guys can find it in dispensaries in Los Angeles everywhere. Stay tuned for some new stuff coming and new limited merch drops.
This might not be super common knowledge but before he was a rapper, Rick Ross spent a little over a year as a correctional officer. He talked about it on an episode of the Full Send podcast in March of 2022. The hosts of the podcast asked if he enjoyed the work and he said he was not a fan.
“I didn’t. Anything you gotta really do you’re fuckin’ running, jogging and all of that shit man,” Rick Ross said to the hosts of Full Send.
High Times asked specifically if Rick Ross worked with cannabis prisoners in his experience as a correctional officer and if this experience had anything to do with his venture into the cannabis industry. Unfortunately, Rick Ross declined to comment on this.
As far as the weed itself and the producers behind it, High Tolerance CEO Manny enlightened us a bit on the process that went into choosing the strain to be used for Collins Ave, which he said was a Gelato X Biscotti cross that came out a bit heavier on the Gelato side. Manny said that when he and Rick Ross decided to collaborate, he brought the rapper five to seven samples to try so he could pick his favorites which became Collins Ave, Boss Pop and Belair Pop. The High Tolerance CEO also gifted Rick Ross with a chain and ring to celebrate their collaboration which TMZ estimated to be worth around $130K together.
“I brought him a good five to seven samples and he ended up liking two or three of them, which is how we ended up coming out with more than just one color, one strain for him because he really liked a couple flavors,” Manny said. “So we gave him Collins Ave. which was his idea, then we came out with the Boss Pop. We have a whole line of pops with a whole bunch of our celebrity collabs. Then we also did the Belair Pop.”
Manny told me he smokes with Rick Ross whenever he sees him. Given the name of the company, High Tolerance, I had to ask Manny who had the Higher Tolerance between him and Rick Ross.
“I think I still take the vote for that,” Manny said. “Just because I do concentrates and stuff but he really doesn’t do that.”
Manny said that High Tolerance has some other projects in the works that the people should keep an eye out for. They’re coming out with a tobacco line including leaf wraps, cigars, grabba and whole leaf. They have more celebrity collaboration strains in the works, the specifics of which he could not share with me just yet, but from what he teased it’s some pretty big names involved. They’re also launching a line of flower called Fly Girl Flower which will be in collectible packaging that resembles Birkin Bags.
On top of all that, High Tolerance is getting into the music business, a natural transition given the number of cannabis collaborations they have with rappers. As aforementioned, one of those collaborations is with Jim Jones. Manny said High Tolerance Records is releasing a song by the artist Low Key featuring Jim Jones. Other artists signed to High Tolerance records include Ace, Killa Brand and Yomel.
