Berner Hustle Relentless

Words: nando
Published: December 8, 2009

Already establishing himself as a successful entrepreneur as well as a rapper, San Francisco's Berner has showed his growth and business muscle in the past several years. Teaming with some of the top bay area names, he has turned some doubters into fans, and in taking the role of executive producer in new solo ventures, the new year looks to be just as busy for the kush man.

Baycentrik: Even though you have roughly 10 projects out there, you are still a new artist. Tell the readers of Baycentrik.com a bit about yourself…

Berner: I'm a San Francisco native, I've been at it about 3 years. I started out putting a lot of collaboration albums out, trying to spread my name to all the different markets possible. Equipto got his own market, Jacka got his own market, Ampichino got his own market. I just really try to get out there and throw my name out there. It's hard to break as a new artist. That's pretty much what I did and you probably heard about me.

Baycentrik: You've gotten some flack for featuring many artists on your albums. Some say you're trying to ride their coattails to make a name for yourself. What do you have to say to those people?

Berner: Basically, they can say what they want. But at the end of the day, if that's the case, by these collaboration albums I'm able to do shows now, verses, features. For instance, this month just off features alone, I'm not gonna speak no numbers its been crazy! What I thought would work, how I thought it would work, it worked. Now if I didn't have any kind of skill or talent or people didn't like me, people wouldn't be booking me for shows. They would just be buying the album , 'ah he sucks, whoopty whoop was cool but he sucks', it really caught on. They caught on to the music, Weekend at Bernie's solo did really well. I feel like, coming out as a new artist is hard! I feel so many dope underground mc's that never--you could ask ten people, they wouldn't have a clue who he is. It's really hard to get out there. So I feel once you get out there to make a name for yourself, whatever you have to do to do that, then do it! At the end of the day it's been working quite well for me. There's a bunch of people that put out albums with some of the artists that I put out, and it didn't take them where it took me. I feel like I did the right thing in that sense of direction. At the end of the day I started as a fan, so when I came in doing a lot of projects and features I just wanted to hear certain artists over certain beats. Cozmo's one of my best friends, one of the greatest producers I've worked with, and having him in my corner, with great production, I'm putting Bun-B on Coz beats, Slim Thug, a lot of people man. Jacka records on Coz beats, I'm doing a whole Fed-X solo album right now with Coz production. Thats another reason why I have a lot of features, I wanna hear these artists over beats they are not using or haven't had access to. ( Listen)

Baycentrik: The having a lot of features thing, it's not an odd thing to see these days. I see a lot of established artists, half or more of their album is full of features.

Berner: Yeah! At the end of the day I think a lot of people are trippin cause it kinda worked for me.  I've seen artists--I'm not gonna say no names--with huge features, but it makes no impact cause they're not dope. I'll be the first to admit I'm still growing as an artist, I'm still learning and getting comfortable with my style. Learning new ways, trust me I'm gonna be dropping a lot of projects. I'm just pretty much getting my feet wet and I'm doing pretty well. I'm actually surprised at the turnout, going in you don't know what's gonna happen,  you could totally flop. Hella artists flop. They come in, they get all these features and flop. That's one of the main reason I did the group albums. Nice artwork, good beats, dope album, they're gonna catch on to you. They gonna start looking out for what you doing.

Baycentrik: Whats the process you go through when putting together a new project from start to finish?

"I'm able to do shows now, verses, features. What I thought would work.. worked."

Berner: Basically the way it works..I get my big brother Gennesse, Cozmo, a few other producers I work with, I just have them send me a bunch of beats. A bunch of different batches. I pick out a bunch of dope beats, now if we're talking about a collaboration album, I got a format for it.  What I do is have artists come in, knock out a certain amount of verses, certain amount of hooks, everything they're supposed to do on their end, along with what I'm supposed to do on my end. Then I have the skeleton. From there I start plugging in features and artists, get everything done. Then I take the project, once it's done, to Photo Doctor Graphics, my boy Shemp, have him take a listen to the album, come up with a concept, shoot the cover, boom! Off to press. So it's kinda like a little machine the way I do it. Like I said I have the artists come in, me and the artists knock out what we're supposed to knock out and we fill in the blanks. Who was kinda the best on a song with what we got done, I think that works really well having it done like that. Finishing the song up first, then decide if this person would sound perfect on this beat, this person sounds better over that beat. So it's a pretty quick process. Me and Jack knocked out that Drought Season 2 in like a week and a half to two weeks. Me and Messy Marv knocked out the album we did in about a week. Fed-X solo album will be done in about six recording sessions. So probably about a weeks time. We knock it down, get to work. ( Listen)

Baycentrik: As far as Bern One Ent. as a company. whats the procedure as far as getting your albums put into stores?

Berner: What I did--I've always been a good business man in whatever I did. Pretty much you have distribution companies. I tried one distribution company, they're pretty good, but I'm starting to learn that the distribution companies are pretty much middle men. What I did was got a print out of all the stores we ship to, so now I know all the locations we ship our CDs to and how they sell. I get a progress report of how we sell. I got a bigger distribution with Jacka's album and Messy Marv's album that plays out through SMC. So first thing you need to do is get a distribution company to distribute the album. I personally run my own label, I do everything, I don't have anyone on my team. I do stuff on the daily. Like today I called ten to twelve mom and pop stores, talked to them personally, see how the Jacka album is doing, let them know another album is coming out. I let them know if they don't feel comfortable ordering through a one stop record label they can order through me. I press a lot of my own CDs. It's really building a relationship just like building any other relationship. You just got to be hands on with it, you can't just put a CD together and expect it to be out in stores. You find out who's gotta put it out, and if the label is not accepting your album, you gotta get in the mom and pop stores, Rasputins, Amoeba, Tennessee is a great market for the bay area, Ohio, Denver, Indiana, there's a bunch of places out there.

Baycentrik: I noticed a lot more artists just drop off their own CDs to stores. Especially today, how many big name stores are actually out there? I can only think of Best Buy.

Berner: Yeah there's not many, and to be real, to anyone who's reading, at the end of the day, I'm gonna keep it 100 with you. Best Buy, FYE, all these stores are really not that important. Because they carry your product, one, it's not represented right, two, I've had so many cases where FYE will sell out of a CD and not re-order it at all. They take their sweet time cause they don't care, it's not in their best interest of underground artists. So my advice is if you're a new artist and you've got a great project, if mom and pops are fuckin with you, I would press the album, put it on iTunes, cause it's the best way for you to sell your album, and I would hit mom and pops stores. I got a project I'm putting together, a compilation, I'm not gonna go through any distribution. I got 1500 first orders already from just local and out of state mom and pops, and iTunes. That's good money! And they're gonna reorder. It's really like any other hustle. The mom and pops pay you upfront, there's no waiting or bullshit. Pure cash!

Baycentrik: Talk about the Fed-X of the Mob Figaz album, "Next Day Air". What gave you the idea to put that together and whats your role in it. Are you the creative force behind it?

Berner: Yeah. Basically I got a bunch of group albums and I got one solo album. I got another solo album coming out. I want my label to have a good reputation and it really does. Even if you read on the net people that hate me, 'oh I don't like Berner but the way he puts out an album is great', so I am gonna take it to the next level and people like Fed-X, I'm always around these people. We all smoking, doing what we do, I'm like 'man we need to knock out a solo project.' I don't see a lot of people moving on them, so I'm about to just go ahead and take the best production I can and give them subject matter, a visual with dope videos and put him out. That's what my company is gonna do, it's not just me. I wanna build my company up to something big just as Thizz was. Thizz was doing a lot of good stuff, so I'm slowly building up my friends and my reputation and I'm gonna put out the dopest products. That's what my whole goal is really. When you got guys like Cozmo and Gennesse in your corner, you got great producers, you can make that vision. A lot of albums fail with terrible production, that's not something that will ever be a problem. I try to take advantage of that really.

Baycentrik: It seems like it's working, I've listened to Drought Season 2, picked up Weekend at Bernie's, I noticed each album has it's specific sound, so you're doing a good job with that.

Berner: Definitely. I'm actually looking at the Messy Marv album right now, it has a total different feel from Drought Season and Weekend at Bernie's. Even Equipto, "Track Money and Pack Money", that album had a whole different feel. I definitely try to cater to the artist, I think I brought the best out of Messy Marv in a lot of years. I don't wanna try to be cocky saying that, but once again with Cozmo and Genessee production and the features, this album is incredible. I'm just a fan at the end of the day like everyone else, I just love music. I'm making it as good as a can really.

"Me and Quinn started to do a project, it's kind of put on hold right now. [He] was very upset with me when he found out that I did something with Mess."

Baycentrik: So what projects are scheduled to drop in the new year?

Berner: I got this Up in Smoke 2 DVD, it's pretty much just traveling, smoking, having fun all around, we went to Amsterdam, Germany, whatnot. It's a whole 'nother DVD. I got the Fed-X album coming in March. I'm sitting on hella projects, I got Traffic 2 pretty much done, I got an album with Louie Loc, I got so many projects I just don't know how to split it up. Expect the DVD and the Fed-X solo next, and also my solo 20 Lights which is gonna be mostly me. It's gonna be big bruh.

Baycentrik: Thats crazy, Louie Loco, I've personally been waiting on a solo from him since back in the Black-N-Brown days.

Berner: Yeah it's done. Louie Loc is a crazy incredible artist! He just came and was juiced to be back around, he killed the whole album fast. I'm trying to find the best way to put it out, I don't want it to be slept on is what I'm trying to say. That's why I'm kinda letting these other projects come out, I wanna have a nice buzz when that comes out. This is gonna be a really nice album, Louie Loc is dope. This 20 Lights album, a lot of people are talking about the features and stuff, this one is gonna be pretty much all me. It's got one specific storyline so it's gonna be interesting for the fans to hear. They wanna hear all me so it's gonna be all me so we will see if they like it or not.

Baycentrik: So you're giving people a chance to prove them wrong, if they don't pick it up and find out, they cant really talk shit….

Berner: Yeah I know they wanna hear me rap about different things, they wanna hear what I can do by myself. I might even just put it up for free! If you don't wanna buy it, here's the link on all the websites! At the end of the day, if I can give them advice, be humble, be yourself, don't try to be something your not. We're just breaking it down keeping it real. Just be positive, if you work hard enough, no matter how much people hate you, if you do your job and you have enough drive, it will come to you. A lot of people, a lot of times hated me. Hated me! But they kept listening, growing, and I told them out the gate I was new. Now they're starting to respect me a little more. I'm only gonna get doper and doper. So if you're fuckin with me keep fuckin with me cause its only gonna get bigger and bigger every time.

Baycentrik: One thing I did notice that you left off that upcoming projects list was the album with San Quinn. It was kind of announced that it was coming out. Is that still scheduled to drop?

Berner: Me and Quinn had started to do a project, we have about seven songs done, mostly produced by Cozmo. I think it's kind of put on hold right now cause of natural feelings. There's a lot of tension right now between Mess and Quinn. Personally I didn't think that it was gonna affect me and Quinn's relationship, which it really hasn't, it just has him feeling a little different about doing a whole project with me after I did one with Mess. We're all from the city, we're all making noise, I think he felt lightweight offended which I completely understand, by me doing a project with Mess. I just wanna put out there that it's strictly business. Mess' Soundscan is great, he's sold a lot of records. So has Jacka. It just was a big move for me to put out an album with Mess right after the Jacka album. The album with Quinn is still gonna be released. I have seven songs done and I'll probably put it on iTunes and press a thousand or two of them, but I really would like to finish it. There's not a problem with me and Quinn, that's my big brother, I look up to Quinn, grew up looking up to Quinn, I always let him know he's one of my favorite artists. It sucks because after doing an album with Jacka, to doing an album with Mess, to doing an album with Quinn, it was just a whole different style, on some real life shit. It was on a different vibe with Coz producing it, it was and could be very big. So I'm gonna go ahead and let that sit for a minute, I'm pretty sure we'll get back to it.

"When people ask me, what are you gonna do if you don't make it, I already made it! I worked with anyone I pretty much listened to when I grew up as a child."

At the end of the day, being from the city, you gotta keep it real, Quinn and Messy Marv are the dopest artists out of the city. It's a small city and if you see the way the talent is pushing right now everyone is together pushing their movement. My whole goal is to do something with Mess, make it as hot as possible, do something with Quinn, make it as hot as possible, and prove to these people that if I can do something with both of them, maybe they can do something together again. If they came back together in some way shape or form it would be crazy. If they did another Explosive Mode and really work things out, it would be big. We can't push the city when everything is divided, cause it really is divided. I can tell Quinn was very upset with me when he found out that I did something with Mess, and we worked it out, talked it out, but at the end of the day we need to all be pushing together. So that was my main goal to really show everyone, look I grew up with Quinn and I can knock this album out with Mess, and knock this album out with Quinn, have them both on some dope, positive no beef type shit, good music, it can prove that it could probably work again. But it's a sticky situation. I don't really know all the details, I just know they got their problems right now. I hope they work that shit out and keep it movin' as a city. ( Listen)

Baycentrik: Family always fights but for the sake of the music and all that are personally involved in the middle, hopefully they work it out.

Berner: I'm a peaceful dude, I'm a hippy, I'm humble, I always try to bring people together, but I know how to play my position, I can only do what I can do. Big shout out to Quinn, big shoutout to Mess, I got love for both of them.

Baycentrik: Well props for trying anyway! Moving on, who are some of the artists you haven't worked with that you would like to grace a track or album with in the future?

Berner: Right now, the A&R of Rap-A-Lot, my boy Dale, is trying to put together an album with me and Lil Keke. It's gonna be hella big because he expressed that they're trying to get him back really just focused and he knows I got a good push. That would be nice, and I really would like to work with Z-Ro. It would be worth it, two of the people I grew up listening to. Then when people ask me, what are you gonna do if you don't make it, 'I already made it!' I worked with anyone I pretty much listened to when I grew up as a child. That's big!

Baycentrik: Even if you don't 'make it' I could see you moving into the Executive Producer role easily.

Berner:  It's already about to come with the Fed-X album. I wanna put together a Rydah album, I'm always gonna put out my music cause I love to make music, but if I got ways to make money I'm gonna make it! I figured it out. I'm a hustler by nature. I found out how to get the money and not to bullshit and I'mma get it.

Baycentrik: Any last words for the readers?

Berner: Much love to you for the interview, I check the website out, make sure yall check out the Cozmo interview. Always keep this bay thing movin, it's gonna be big! We'll make a lot more noise, and we all gotta push together to keep this Frisco movement cracking!