So you want to be a professional blunt roller?

It’s not just anyone who can claim to be the world’s premiere blunt roller, but with celebrity clients that include Snoop Dogg, Rihanna and Madonna, Ranagade Perrana is smoking out her competition. The cannabis connoisseur scored her job as Snoop’s professional blunt roller when she won a roll-off against a Venezuelan cigar roller and the rapper’s sound engineer back in 2016. She’s also behind that infamous Elon Musk smoking meme, so puff on that.

With an ever-expanding roster of A-list clients, and a Blunt Bar business to cater high-end smokeables at events, Perrana estimates that she’s rolled nearly half a million joints in her career (and no, they weren’t all smoked by Snoop Dogg). As for the blunts themselves, Piranha explains that they’re rolled in a professional setting, not in the same room as her clients: “It’s done in a very sanitised, clean way, and it’s delivered,” she said previously. 

Below, Perrana tells us how she became a master roller, her craziest stories on the job, and how to roll the perfect blunt.

How did you get into weed to begin with? 

Ranagade Perrana: After moving from Iran to the US, I started smoking weed subconsciously as a PTSD remedy from being born in the middle of a war I guess, and it’s been part of my life ever since. When I moved to the US it was a way to deal with everything that teenagers deal with mentally and emotionally; it’s always helped me stay focused. I vowed to be a master roller when Tupac said “roll a perfect blunt and let me spark it for you”.

Your Instagram bio mentions that you’re an entertainer. What sort of other stuff are you into? 

Ranagade Perrana: I’m an artist through and through: I make music, I paint, I’m a fashion designer, I make clothes, I direct and create my own music videos, I’m a content creator, curate photoshoots, a visionary, and a motivational speaker.  

How would you describe your day-to-day job? What are some of the perks? 

Ranagade Perrana: I’m a professional blunt roller, head of marketing for brands, and the blunt bar creator. When it comes to being a professional blunt roller, my day consists of planning for all my clients, organising supplies accordingly, and catering to their demands. I go over every detail to make sure I can deliver on time. After all my orders are lined up and ready to go, I get to work, put some music on, preferably DMX, Tupac, or Sizzla, and start rolling.

As head of marketing for international beauty brand Shine n Jam, I come up with storyboards, line up and organise content for them and make their vision come to life in creative ways. And as the blunt bar creator, I get booked at events, private and industry parties, when I’ll be rolling for guests, which makes for great content. I take my entire home set up on the road to create a full-on blunt rolling smoking experience. 

What would you say is your craziest blunt rolling-related story? 

Ranagade Perrana: I was hosting a blunt bar at what was supposed to be a “private” event in the Hollywood Hills, and a few hours into the party that was only supposed to be for a few hundred people ended up with a headcount of about 10,000 people! So as I’m working in the VIP section of the party, then out of nowhere some helicopters were shining their lights right at me. Security comes running to tell the guards in our room to clear everything and get everyone out. They come over to me and basically tell me to forget everything, pack it up and go! So then, with helicopter lights circling the party and a swarm of officers coming in, I tossed everything I could into my case within three seconds. Then me and my two assistants carried a hundred lbs down the hill to Sunset Blvd, alongside 10,000 other kids being evacuated from the party. We couldn’t order an Uber til we hit Sunset – because the hills have eyes, but the hills don’t have service.    

What are some of your tips for rolling the perfect blunt? 

Ranagade Perrana: These are my absolute fundamentals: approach the roll with confidence, and own the task at hand – you are the roller, not the one being rolled! As the master of the ceremony, imagine a perfect smoking experience before you begin the journey. It also really helps to be clear what your intentions are: the intention is to wrap up the flower in a cylinder/cone-like fashion, while maintaining integrity to the aerodynamics and the thermodynamic principles that must be abided by. The placement of the flower is important, create the shape before you wrap it up, it plays a huge part in the smoking experience. It can’t be too loose or too tight.

Thank you Ranagade.