K$K Hussle

"A Day in the Life with Filmmaker and Cannabis Entrepreneur K$K"

FEATURED IN THE PHOTOS: WILL @_EARTHTOWILL KARA @KARAMVIR VENUSIAN @_VENUSIAN BAM @SIDEMONEYCO NAKIAH @TRILLARYXSWANK PARIS @CLUMSYPSYCHIC ENDIA @ENDIATHEMUSE GRAM @GRAMGANDHI EMMA @EMCCHEEZY ARI KILL @_ARIKILL MARIN (HAIR STYLIST) @MARIN_RENEE`

Heyyyy My name is Kira, also known as K$K, and I am a filmmaker, creative director, and cannabis entrepreneur. Since 2012, I have spent my career creating music videos and short films that are inspired by cannabis and my personal experiences. Over the years in the film industry, funding my film projects has been a challenge due to the lack of support for women. I didn't want to pander to an industry that lacked representation or create equitable opportunities to be successful for people like me and my friends. I began to explore the cannabis industry as a possible option to fund my films and create a new financial structure for women to fund their film projects. It has been my passion to break stigmas and confront the lack of safety for femmes in the offputting black-market cannabis industry. I want to continue to share and showcase the benefits and profitability of the cannabis industry to help filmmakers and other artists who want to fund their work without participation in an antiquated system. In 2020, I fully dedicated my life to this mission by launching The Hussle Lab, an organization that brings together women in both cannabis and film. As a lifelong pothead, it has always been my dream to find an empowering way to combine cannabis and film. As a way to lessen the stigma and re-write the narrative of being a woman in these industries, I'm offering you a window into my daily life and the people that have helped bring my cannabis company and The Hussle Lab to life.

10:30 AM - First alarm goes off. Check the phone for requests... You always have the early people who work at normal jobs and start fantasizing about getting high on their morning breaks. My long-term customers know I won’t be available until at least the afternoon. I spend time handling my responses before going back to sleep so I don’t wake back up too overwhelmed.

11:15 AM - 12:30 PM- Answer emails and DMs via social media. Both my phone and DMs begin to get pretty hectic. At this point in the day, I'm handling responses for cannabis requests, communicating with film festivals/organizations for my completed films, and managing the Hussle Lab (@ thehusslelab on Instagram) community. The Hussle Lab is an online community that is growing into a physical safe space that advocates for femmes in both the filmmaking and cannabis world. I started the Hussle Lab so that people like me would feel less alone and so that others can connect with similar tastes and work.

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM - It's time for a coffee or smoothie, and the first J of the day. I’m definitely a joint smoker who rolls a big J and just nurses it throughout the day. I roll XL Raw papers with a filter (sometimes a little grabba but I’m weaning myself off). Usually, during the day, I smoke a Sativa and Nigerian Haze is my favorite.

1:30 -3:30 - Now that I’m sufficiently in my zone, I sit down to do some editing on my new film. My latest project, "Darkness is Light", is an experimental short I have been working on for the past year. While on a work trip to New Orleans for a large hip-hop publication, I was sexually assaulted by one of my colleagues. I always wanted to make a film about the experience to help others dealing with the same trauma. Thanks to my amazing and talented friends in New York, New Orleans, and Philadelphia I was able to shoot it in 2020. Now that the film is in postproduction, I have been spending a lot of alone time selecting the perfect shots, colors, and sounds to bring the world of the film to life. I hope to partner with different sexual assault survivor organizations for the release of the film in early 2022.

4:00 PM- 8:00 PM - People start to get off work and my phone begins to go off. One of the most rewarding things for me about working in cannabis is the way I see how I improve the daily quality of life for people. Whether it's smoking a joint with them while they decompress from their day, or providing the plant medicine that puts their mind and body at ease, it feels so good to be contributing to the general well-being of my community.

8:00 pm -11:00 pm - At this point, our living room and studio are usually jumping. During the pandemic especially, coming to buy weed from me was some of my clients' only opportunity to leave the house. Those nights of endless joints and conversations acted as some of the main inspiration for some of my earlier work for the conception of The Hussle Lab. Most of my clients are female-identifying artists, so I've experienced firsthand how impactful cannabis can be for us on various levels.

11 PM - 1 AM - I honestly am always cooking so late at night because it's the only time I can slow my life down. After 12 it's cooking, and Netflix, and lately some White Runtz.