The baseball cap-wearing, braided-beard-bearing Shavo Odadjian is most recognizable as the bassist of popular heavy metal band System of a Down, but with a cannabis and lifestyle brand about to launch in Nevada, he’s sporting multiple hats these days.
The self-described marijuana connoisseur is the face of 22Red, a cannabis company, music imprint, fashion line and more. Based in LA, 22Red can already be found in California and Arizona, and soon, it be will be available here in Nevada.
This interview was originally supposed to take place in person in Las Vegas, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Odadjian instead phoned the Weekly while quarantining with his family from his LA home. At one point, Odadjian took a time-out to look at a drawing his young son had just made. “He drew this picture and he wanted me to see it, so he was trying to slide it under my office door,” Odadjian said, laughing.
As a family man, Odadjian waited for the right time to get involved in the cannabis industry, though he says people had tried to get him into the game for more than a decade. 22Red began life as a clothing line, then pivoted once cannabis became recreationally legal in California.
“It was organic,” Odadjian says. “Like, why don’t we just put weed into this lifestyle [brand]? … So I put all of my strength and passion and time and effort and everything I have into that, and we got it off the ground, and that’s how it became what it became.”
Everything in the 22Red line has been selected, smoked and named by Odadjian himself. “Everything goes through me,” he says. “And when I say everything goes through me, I mean the strains, what we’re growing and what I want out there, even the naming of them. The quality is No. 1. I have a pretty good track record of what I put my name on, so I don’t want to ruin that.”
This year, Odadjian plans to release five different strains in the Nevada market: the indica-dominant hybrid Animal Mint; the heavy-hitting indica White Sabbath (which Odadjian recommends for nighttime); the sativa-dominant hybrid Mimosa 22; the “very potent” indica-dominant hybrid 22 OG; and a lighter indica-dominant hybrid called So Delicious. (Follow @22redla on Instagram for official launch information.)
“When you smoke [So Delicious], it’s like ice cream,” Odadjian says. “I don’t even know how to explain it.” As for the OG, Odadjian says it’s the real deal from back in the day. “My guy was one of the original growers of it from the late ’90s and the early 2000s, so we have the original cuts of that.”
22Red will also carry three different vapes—a sativa called Kinetic, an indica called Peace and a CBD-THC two-in-one called Eleven—plus four flavored CBD Hemp Direct vape pens: watermelon, strawberry sorbet, cereal killer and orange mint.
Marijuana isn’t the only thing Odadjian is excited about. The entrepreneur sees 22Red competing in a variety of markets. According to its website, 22Red’s mission is “to create an amplified cannabis lifestyle that celebrates the creatives of the world” across cannabis, music, art and fashion. His new record label imprint, which he says will be the music arm of 22Red, is next on the horizon.
It’ll also be the home of Odadjian’s band, North Kingsley.
“I have a whole record made and ready to go, but what I want to do is drop it in little portions, like the first three songs in the first drop, and then a month later maybe another song—kind of like always give music to the masses,” he says proudly. “It’s the first thing I’ve dropped since System of a Down stuff. I started a project with the RZA back in ’09 called Achozen, but we never actually dropped that. So I’m looking forward to dropping this.”
Odadjian is also working on exclusive artist collaborations to go along with the new releases, from online content like music videos to streetwear-styled merch and more. It’s just another piece in Odadjian’s puzzle, as he works to shape 22Red into an all-encompassing lifestyle brand.
The company has already rolled out its minimalist 22OG Micro-Collection, and the website states, “This is only the beginning for 22Red apparel.” Whether its cannabis or clothing, music or art, Odadjian brings the same passion to whatever he’s working on—and he’s just getting started.
“I’m hoping it turns into something even bigger,” he says. “I don’t believe in half-assing anything.”
