Last week’s CHAMPS Trade Show 2025 in Las Vegas, held July 23‑26, felt less like a conventional B2B expo and more like a pop‑up mixtape. Rap icons Twista, Curren$y, and Bay‑Area wordsmith LaRussell traded verses for vendor badges, roaming the aisles in search of the latest hemp innovations, glass art and vape tech. After ripping through his rapid‑fire classics on the hhemp.co‑stage, Twista surveyed the crowd and observed, “It’s a youth‑driven sport, but us OGs get inspired by the new wave.” His words captured CHAMPS’s 2025 identity: a proving ground where hip‑hop culture and counter‑culture commerce collide.
Since 1999, CHAMPS has served as America’s premier counter‑culture marketplace, drawing hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of retail and wholesale buyers to each of its six annual stops. What began as a smoke‑shop accessory fair has morphed into a launchpad for celebrity‑backed lines, terp‑heavy vapes, and designer blunt wraps. In 2025, hip‑hop’s fingerprints are everywhere on stage, in boardrooms and across every buzzworthy booth on the show floor.
Hip‑Hop’s Newest Producer
One of the busiest spots in the convention center was Booth 7001, where contract manufacturer hhemp.co transformed its footprint into “Hemp World,” a four‑day micro‑festival stitched into the fabric of the trade show. Live sets from LaRussell, Twista, Fortunate Youth, and Curren$y drew shoulder‑to‑shoulder crowds while Lil Baby, Runtz‑founder Yung LB, and Kill Tony comedians Uncle Lazer and David Lucas made surprise cameos.
Between performances, buyers packed in to hear about new product launches from hhemp.co’s partner brands, including Sherbinskis, Boutiq, CAM, Punch Edibles, NUG, CHFN, and Lovepot. “We’re not just debuting products,” said hhemp.co CEO Dr. Bao Le. “We’re building the next chapter of cannabis culture, one where retail buyers, legacy artists and Gen Z creators learn from each other under the same roof.”
OGs Meet the New Wave
Star power wasn’t limited to this CHAMPS Trade Show. Earlier this year, Snoop Dogg announced he would judge the blunt‑rolling finals and debut his SWED wraps at the show’s winter session, signaling CHAMPS’s magnetic pull for hip‑hop royalty. On the summer show floor, Curren$y and Twista hinted at a CHFN × hhemp.co partnership; Lil Baby shot promo footage with Litty Flower Shop for his “Wham” line; and Yung LB drummed up excitement for the Runtz+Litty collaboration. Add heavyweight visits from Mike Tyson, Lil Wyte, and Wiz Khalifa, and the trade show floor looked more like a Grammy‑week backstage than a standard B2B bazaar.
Hip‑hop artists have become cannabis architects, designing products, patenting devices and negotiating brand collaborations. LaRussell’s on-stage reflection captures the new-school playbook: Rising artists leverage DIY authenticity and digital-native hustle while collaborating with brands like hhemp.co to scale their businesses. Nowhere is that union more tangible than CHAMPS, where handshake deals in castle‑sized booths can turn a viral hit into a national SKU overnight.
If the Vegas stop proved anything, it’s that the soundtrack of modern cannabis retail now comes with a live DJ, a customized merch table, and a queue of brand managers waiting in the wings. CHAMPS has evolved into more than a trade show—it’s the stage where cultural cachet converts directly into shelf space. Catch the next CHAMPS Trade Shows in Austin and Fort Lauderdale later this year.
