While much more known within the cannabis industry, Taylor Gang affiliate Berner has quietly been releasing album after album of quality tunes for more than a decade, beginning with 2007’s Dirty Sneakers…Plenty of Ways to Get It. Today, he releases his fifteenth solo LP, Russ Bufalino: The Quiet Don, named after the Italian-American crime boss of the 1900s. The project boasts 18 cuts and features from Wiz Khalifa, Tee Grizzley, G Herbo, Mozzy, Trae Tha Truth, Damian and Stephen Marley, and more. One particular standout is “100 Joints (20 Joints Part 2),” which sees Berner rapping about what he loves the most:
“I’m ridin’, smokin’, I live by the ocean, a deep coat filled with cash, I ain’t boastin’, I touch them, I used to rock a duck tail, learned how to milk a b***h to make a drug sale…/”
Russ Bufalino: The Quiet Don follows this year’s The Warning and Los Meros, two collaborative releases with R-Mean and legendary rapper B-Real, respectively. His last solo release, La Plaza, made landfall last November and, as with many of Berner’s efforts, was packed with dope assists — Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, Chris Brown, OMB Peezy, Nef The Pharoah, and plenty more contributed.
Outside of the music, Berner is also a highly successful business man, having helped to expand the Cookies lifestyle, apparel, and marijuana brand. During his appearance on Drink Champs, the San Francisco native explained its origin:
“At the end of the day, my partner Jai was from my neighborhood and he was bringing the bags and I was moving ‘em… I was doing my thing, I was the brander, the creator, the hype, the machine, the engine behind getting it where it had to be and I was rapping at the time, too. So, I just happened to get it cracking.”
Press play on Russ Bufalino: The Quiet Don, as well as a visual for the album’s intro and title track, below.