Gary Perry Gary Perry was climbing the cannabis industry ladder when he realized the culture had much more to offer than just cannabis.
“There had to be something more than just industry,” he says.
This realization inspired Perry to create the Tiny Trap concert series in 2021. While the pandemic forced most traditional music venues to shut down, Perry built his concert series around cannabis retailers.
“I pitched the concept to retailers and to artists and then I had about 300 venues for them to perform in,” Perry says. “It’s been a great time being a traveling hip-hop and R&B show that goes from dispensary to dispensary.”
The shows drew large audiences into retail stores, but that audience wasn’t finding many brands reflective of them at the register, Perry says.
“A lot of the industry is very — for lack of better terms — white, hokey and corny,” Perry says. “That isn’t attractive to the Black dollar.”
Perry began developing TerpBae, a cannabis brand marketed toward the audiences attending his concerts and brought the concept to market with the help of local producer Tower Three. The brand is available at select stores across the state and is expanding into Michigan and Oklahoma. TerpBae donates $1 for every pre-roll and $2 for every eighth sold to a wide assortment of nonprofits in the greater Boston area.
“So much of the driving narrative is that these folks watched me over the last 10 years,” he says. “To be able to show them someone who’s from here that represents them, that puts back into them — after watching me take 10 years to find some footing for myself — is a win for my community.”