Sourwavez is known for his searing and insightful meme commentary on the California weed industry, dispensed from his various Instagram accounts that frequently get shut down. One of the main reasons that his memes are so popular is that they clearly come from someone well versed in the Cali weed industry and in the underground market.
To some, the identity of Sourwavez has been a mystery. To others, he’s a longtime friend and deep insider to the scene who arrived in California from the East Coast over 20 years ago. He’s grown on farms in NorCal and indoors in the city, he’s also made his own brand of concentrates.
Now Sourwavez is embarking on his next venture Sourwavez Genetics, which is a breeding project that he began late last year. He’s working on what might possibly be the next big thing in weed strains in California, while marketing his own drops in places like LA, New York and DC.
After decades in the California industry, Sourwavez has built an amazing collection of different strains. He used his genetic archive to create 39 crosses of a OZK pheno he refers to as “OZX”
In a sense, the project has been years in the making.
“I have been a hoarder of genetics for quite some time, so, I just figured, why not try.” Sourwavez said. “people were like, ‘How did you do such a huge reversal?’ I have literally 39 crosses. And everything used was verified to be what it is.”
To figure out if he had anything decent from the run, he left the seed popping to top growers who are more well versed in hunting, friends of his in the industry.
Success to me is creating something that becomes a household name, that people fuck with.
Sourwavez
“Over the past year, I’ve given some seeds to some trusted friends and also some to random people, just to see what they find. And people have been popping very small amounts of seeds and finding cool stuff. So, it makes me want to release them and contribute to the game,” Sourwavez said.
It took a lot of time and free giveaways to verify the seed stock before he was comfortable putting them on sale to the community.
“I would rather throw away thousands of seeds in the garbage then put them out and people find trash results, and I burn my name out. Because you only get one shot in this game anymore, and maybe even less than that,” he said.
His goal is nothing other than to find the next big strain. While strains come and go, some strains define entire eras in California weed.
“Where I was trying to go with this shit is trying to find something new and different.” Sourwavez said. “I’m really hoping to find something familiar, but different enough to become a classic,” he said.
“I really want to see what comes of this and continue to create. The few things that I’ve gotten back, pretty fire” Sourwavez said.
He’s aware that there’s a certain amount of pressure on him, considering what he calls “these weirdos and haters.” But he also finds breeding to be an art form with no right or wrong perception of what is great.
“I look at breeding and weed in general like it’s an art form, and with art the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s really up to the people to decide.” Sourwavez said.
“I could paint something and be like, this is the best piece I’ve ever painted in my life. And people might look at it and be like, ‘This dude is garbage,’ while others may really love what I’m doing”
He’s used to getting criticised online, but seems to not care much about any form of negativity.
“On the internet, people talk shit. It is what it is. I’m not really too much concerned about that, the internet will always remain undefeated. I’m concerned with people that actually support and are on the hunt for new stuff,” Sourwavez said.
He’s not kidding himself that he knows what he’s doing, exactly. He’s experimenting for sure and might be somewhat of an amateur as a breeder. And yet, he says, a single find could make a huge impact.
“This is the people’s business,” Sourwavez says, of breeding and growing. “This is one of the last of the people’s businesses. Somebody can go and do this in their one light tent at home and come up with a hit strain,” he said.
For him, success would be a matter of coming up with a strain that becomes an instant classic.
“Success to me is creating something that becomes a household name, that people fuck with,” he said.
“I look at selling seeds like selling dreams. Because everyone who grows wants to pop the next big strain. But there has to be some sort of verification that there’s something decent in that. I’ve had one friend who was like, there’s nothing in here. Okay, cool. But then literally everyone else was like, ‘I got this out of 10 seeds or less,’ and they found something sick, and that’s the true test of good or bad genetics. To pop a small amount of one thing and find fire. ” Sourwavez said.
As for what he hopes will come of the project, he has one word.
“Fire. I want new fire,” Sourwavez said.
“To be real, I dont consider myself a breeder at this point, I’m more of a marketing person, a meme maker which is actually considered advertising nowadays. I’ve become a court jester of this industry,” Sourwavez said. “So, for me to do real projects, people are looking at this shit like, what’s this guy even talking about? We came for the memes.”
It’s his background as a memester that gives him an advantage.
“What’s given me motion in the industry is being a complete asshole on the internet for this long. People actually know me from that and support that online persona. I feel that internet positioning has helped me get my genetics into the hands of some of the GOATs,” he said.
“My focus was flower, new exotics over hash for this project. But I definitely have a couple crosses to known hash strains that I think you might find something cool if you hunt through,” he said.
He sees a lot of possibility in the game even now that it’s going to hell in a hand basket.
“It’s a brave new world. And I think we just need to adapt and keep grinding and looking for new things, because everybody is getting sick of the same old. But then at the same time, if it’s too far off from the same old thing, people don’t want it. Everybody wants this, then that, but then they don’t, and then they do. You know what I mean? So, it’s a weird time we’re living in,” Sourwavez said.
Follow Sourwavez on Instagram at @sourwavez and @kingsourwavezgenetics on Instagram and on Telegram.
