New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Legendary Hip Hop trio
Cypress Hill will headline the first ever Budtender Awards at Light nightclub at Mandalay Bay Saturday, October 12. The first-ever cannabis and CBD event of its kind at an MGM property, the two-plus day event promises panel discussions, a product and service expo, a closing night awards program, and after-party culminating in a performance by the hip hop superstars.
Cypress Hill can rightly stake a claim to being the official rap group of cannabis. The South Gate natives have vocalized their support of medical and recreational cannabis in their music, interviews and business over the course of their nearly 30-year career. While selling over 20 million albums worldwide and touring extensively, member B-Real has put his money where his mouth is, and spent three years lovingly creating his own dispensary Dr. Greenthumbs in California (opening in 2018) and can boast his own award winning strain, Tangie. Cypress Hill's involvement in the Budtender Awards is not only limited to a special performance, as Dr. Greenthumbs is also an official exhibitor at the event. The group will also be receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Budtender Awards for their incredible and prolific contributions to cannabis culture.
In his story for Medium/Cuepoint called "How
Cypress Hill Made Marijuana Mainstream," Mike Pizzo says, "They were the first group blunt enough — no pun intended — to openly embrace cannabis culture on a mainstream platform, making it okay for every rapper thereafter to do so." "I think marijuana/weed was always part of the culture, it was just underground," says [Cypress Hill's] Sen Dog. "We just wanted to make it cool again. After the War on Drugs that the Reagans had, when they classified marijuana as a class one drug, it made it really uncool and made parents really concerned about smoking weed."
"With all the shit they were throwing at us, 'These are kids from the streets and they are influencing our young,' blah blah blah. Nobody wanted to pile on more negativity," says B-Real "But we didn't look at it as negative, we looked at it like this is who we are. There's nothing wrong with it, it should be legal for many reasons, other than just casual consumption."
Thanks to advocates like Cypress Hill, cannabis culture is here to stay, with everything from fine dining menus, Weed Museums, and now the Budtender Awards ushering Cannabis into the mainstream. Sponsored by Canna Paid, the event honors the budtenders and promotes their efforts by acknowledging their influence on the industry, and the communities they impact in addition to raising awareness about cannabis and providing a robust education program from Clover Leaf University, the first accredited university specializing in phytotechnology.
The inclusion of
Cypress Hill is no mere influencer appearance, although there will certainly be plenty of tastemakers, movers and shakers from the marijuana sphere on the ground of Mandalay Bay for the event including: Rachel Wolfson (@wolfiememes/@wofliecomedy), Modest Jones, Koala Puffs & Silenced Hippie, SkinnyQueen, and many more. Dozens of exhibitors, a daily educational track and free donuts each morning round out the offering.
Tickets are still for sale at this over the top weekend long Cannabis event in Sin City. The Budtender Awards offer four distinct attendee tiers ranging from one or two day General Admission, Budtender Special, Budtender Education Special and VIP, which includes a meet and greet with Cypress Hill
