“Don’t world leaders need to shut the f–k up and let us smoke?”
Killer Mike makes a good point. The Atlanta rapper and rap duo Run the Jewels member posts the question in the trailer for Tumbleweeds with Killer Mike.
Premiering this 4/20, the four-part docuseries from Weedmaps focuses on four cities in the United States - Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago - and the cannabis culture, dispensaries, and personalities that call them home.
According to a press release issued last week, the docuseries “challenges existing perceptions of cannabis, further normalizing the industry and showcasing what the plant has done and will continue to do for communities.”
In the same press release, Killer Mike (Michael Santiago Render) said of the experience, “getting a chance to smoke a plant my momma and I love, hang out and laugh with hilarious comedians, all while frequenting local businesses and art installations - you’ll never hear me complain about my job!”
The first two episodes will debut on 4/20 and are focused on Las Vegas and San Francisco. The episodes will be followed by New York on May 1st and 8th. The series was produced by Wheelhouse DNA and Wheelhouse Labs and will be available for streaming on VICE TV and VICE TV streaming apps.
In each episode, Killer Mike will visit dispensaries and meet with local personalities. Special guests include comedian Jocelyn Chia and hip-hop legend Fab 5 Freddy, who produced, directed, and hosted the 2019 cannabis documentary Grass is Greener.
In an interview with Forbes in March, Chris Beals, CEO of WM Technology (which operates Weedmaps) said the docuseries is “yet another way for consumers to learn about the impact of cannabis through the lens of comedy and community in different U.S. cities.”
Beals added that Tumbleweeds “works to highlight the economic and societal impacts of cannabis” and that he hopes viewers “take what they learn and support a more equitable and open legal cannabis economy.”
Tumbleweeds is not Weedmaps’ first foray into filmmaking. In September 2020, the company debuted Uprooted, a three-part docuseries that covered the history of cannabis legalization.
The three-part series looked at how the promise of California’s legal recreational cannabis industry has fallen short. It included several surprising statistics, including that 70% of the municipalities in the state don’t allow legal cannabis businesses. It also looks at how legal cannabis has failed to replace the illegal market and how people from disadvantaged communities have been largely left out of the state’s legal marijuana industry.
This is also not Killer Mike’s first time hosting a docuseries.
In 2019, he hosted Trigger Warning with Killer Mike, in which he found funny and thought-provoking ways to put “his revolutionary ideas about achieving social change into action.”
In The series premiere, an episode entitled “Living Black,” Killer Mike attempts to spend three days supporting only black-owned businesses. Killer Mike faced several hardships in the social experiment, most notably (for this website) when trying to buy cannabis.
Though his weed dealer is black, Killer Mike’s director informs him that the cannabis is from Northern California and was probably grown by white people.
“You guys gentrified marijuana,” he tells his (white) Run the Jewels partner El-P.
Unable to smoke weed grown by Mexicans, he is forced to abstain from smoking cannabis - but only for three days.
