Final week’s CHAMPS Commerce Present 2025 in Las Vegas, held July 23‑26, felt much less like a standard B2B expo and extra like a pop‑up mixtape. Rap icons Twista, Curren$y, and Bay‑Space wordsmith LaRussell traded verses for vendor badges, roaming the aisles in the hunt for the most recent hemp improvements, glass artwork and vape tech. After ripping via his fast‑hearth classics on the hhemp.co‑stage, Twista surveyed the group and noticed, “It’s a youth‑pushed sport, however us OGs get impressed by the brand new wave.” His phrases captured CHAMPS’s 2025 identification: a proving floor the place hip‑hop tradition and counter‑tradition commerce collide.
Since 1999, CHAMPS has served as America’s premier counter‑tradition market, drawing a whole bunch of exhibitors and 1000’s of retail and wholesale consumers to every of its six annual stops. What started as a smoke‑store accent truthful has morphed right into a launchpad for movie star‑backed traces, terp‑heavy vapes, and designer blunt wraps. In 2025, hip‑hop’s fingerprints are all over the place on stage, in boardrooms and throughout each buzzworthy sales space on the present ground.
Hip‑Hop’s Latest Producer
One of many busiest spots within the conference middle was Sales space 7001, the place contract producer hhemp.co remodeled its footprint into “Hemp World,” a 4‑day micro‑competition stitched into the material of the commerce present. Dwell units from LaRussell, Twista, Lucky Youth, and Curren$y drew shoulder‑to‑shoulder crowds whereas Lil Child, Runtz‑founder Yung LB, and Kill Tony comedians Uncle Lazer and David Lucas made shock cameos.
Between performances, consumers packed in to listen to about new product launches from hhemp.co’s associate manufacturers, together with Sherbinskis, Boutiq, CAM, Punch Edibles, NUG, CHFN, and Lovepot. “We’re not simply debuting merchandise,” mentioned hhemp.co CEO Dr. Bao Le. “We’re constructing the subsequent chapter of hashish tradition, one the place retail consumers, legacy artists and Gen Z creators be taught from one another below the identical roof.”
OGs Meet the New Wave
Star energy wasn’t restricted to this CHAMPS Commerce Present. Earlier this 12 months, Snoop Dogg introduced he would choose the blunt‑rolling finals and debut his SWED wraps on the present’s winter session, signaling CHAMPS’s magnetic pull for hip‑hop royalty. On the summer time present ground, Curren$y and Twista hinted at a CHFN × hhemp.co partnership; Lil Child shot promo footage with Litty Flower Store for his “Wham” line; and Yung LB drummed up pleasure for the Runtz+Litty collaboration. Add heavyweight visits from Mike Tyson, Lil Wyte, and Wiz Khalifa, and the commerce present ground appeared extra like a Grammy‑week backstage than an ordinary B2B bazaar.
Hip‑hop artists have develop into hashish architects, designing merchandise, patenting gadgets and negotiating model collaborations. LaRussell’s on-stage reflection captures the new-school playbook: Rising artists leverage DIY authenticity and digital-native hustle whereas collaborating with manufacturers like hhemp.co to scale their companies. Nowhere is that union extra tangible than CHAMPS, the place handshake offers in fort‑sized cubicles can flip a viral hit right into a nationwide SKU in a single day.
If the Vegas cease proved something, it’s that the soundtrack of contemporary hashish retail now comes with a stay DJ, a custom-made merch desk, and a queue of name managers ready within the wings. CHAMPS has advanced into greater than a commerce present—it’s the stage the place cultural cachet converts instantly into shelf area. Catch the subsequent CHAMPS Commerce Exhibits in Austin and Fort Lauderdale later this 12 months.
