Across hip-hop, prominent rappers, singers, and producers have been using their influence to encourage healthy, sustainable, ethical choices when it comes to diet.
Take Snoop Dogg, for example. In the last few years, the rapper has really thrown the weight of his influence behind plant-based meat brand Beyond Meat (he even helped hand out free burgers to celebrate its IPO in 2019) and has supported vegan restaurants like Slutty Vegan and Vurger Guyz. He’s not alone. Jay-Z invested in vegan chicken brand Simulate in 2021, and in the same year, rapper Offset celebrated his 30th birthday with vegan deli sandwiches from vegan deli meat company Unreal Deli.
Plus, in the documentary film They’re Trying to Kill Us, a collaboration between filmmaker Keegan Kuhn and vegan activist John Lewis, the lens of hip-hop culture is used to explore food inequality and environmental racism across America.
So it’s no surprise that a number of hip-hop stars are vegan. To find out who has ditched meat and dairy completely, check out our list below.
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1 Jermaine Dupri
Rapper and producer Jermaine Dupri has been vegan for nearly two decades. At first, he adopted the lifestyle for his health, he told Mashed in 2021. “A lot of people today, we don’t know if we’re healthy or not. We just believe that life goes, then something happens, and people go to the doctor and they find out all this other stuff,” he said. “I don’t want to do that. I want to at least know I’m healthy on a lot of different fronts and being vegan allows you to be that.”
Dupri doesn’t believe that eating healthy, vegan food should mean sacrificing your favorite treats, however. In 2021, he partnered with Walmart to launch his own ice cream brand, JD’s Vegan. Find out more here.
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2 Ne-Yo
Ne-Yo discovered the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle back in 2017 after he watched the eye-opening vegan documentary What The Health. According to the musician, the vegan diet not only helped him lose weight and give him more energy but also helped fix his ongoing knee problems.
“A friend told me a plant-based diet could reverse the effects of heart disease, cancer. I had tendinitis in both my knees—two weeks, brand new knees, like it never happened. I kid you not! I love it,” he told US Weekly in 2019.
3 RZA
Hip Hop legend RZA, who is, of course, one of the founding members of Wu-Tang Clan, has been vegan for more than 20 years. The star is not just a proponent of the health benefits, but he’s also an animal rights advocate, too. In 2019, he told host Joe Rogan and comedian Donnell Rawlings on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast: “I just hit you with this right here, the reality of how I feel: No animal needs to die for me to live, okay?”
RZA has inspired several other members of the Wu-Tang Clan to give up animal products or dabble with plant-based food. “My end goal is to become a vegan. Eighty percent of the Clan are vegan right now,” Inspectah Deck (real name Jason Hunter) told Metro UK in 2019.
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4 A$AP Rocky
A$AP Rocky told the world he was vegan in 2019, via the medium of song. “I ain’t duck sauce since I became a vegan,” he raps on “Babushka Boi.” But the rapper hasn’t eaten meat, at least, for more than a decade. In 2013, he told Grub Street, “I don’t eat meat, so people don’t like to celebrate Thanksgiving with me. They can’t enjoy it. Most people in my family, they mix meat in everything that they cook. So it’s just pretty annoying.”
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5 Will.i.am
Will.i.am switched to a vegan diet in 2017 after learning he had high blood pressure and cholesterol. “I switched my regimen, went plant-based and it changed my life. I lost 20 lbs. My stress levels came down naturally. I have more energy. My sleep regimen is awesome,” the rapper told The Thrive Global Podcast.
Like A$AP Rocky, he has also included his commitment to veganism in his songs. “You eat the yellowtail, Imma [sic] eat the plant-based. I ain’t chewing on no food, with two eyes and a face,” he raps on The Black Eyed Peas track “Vibrations pt.1 pt.2.” “Got a new attitude, gotta stay elevated. If somebody hates, let them hate and kinda motivate.”
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6 Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu hasn’t eaten meat since the 1980s and has followed a vegan diet since 2006. “It’s just what’s best for my body. If I was a Lamborghini, I would want to put the best gas in it,” the iconic singer-songwriter told People in 2016. She added at the time that her diet consisted of mainly raw plant foods, including fruits, avocado, kale salads, and alkaline water.
Styles P
7 Styles P
Styles P is a big advocate for a plant-based, whole-food approach to diet. In particular, he’s a big fan of juicing—he even has his own juice bar franchise, Juices for Life. The rapper and entrepreneur was driven to open the business by a desire to improve access to healthier foods. “If you grew up in the hood, there’s a liquor store on every corner, there’s a fast-food place on every corner,” he told Hypebeast. “If you make money and you move to a more affluent neighborhood, you don’t see those same things so frequently.”
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8 Mya
Mya is, of course, a successful singer-songwriter, but she’s also made a name for herself as a vegan activist and advocate. In a video for The Root in 2018, for example, she said: “Some of the pros of veganism? Let’s start with clarity in the mental space, even spiritual connection with the rest of the world, environmentalism, it takes about 25,000 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. There [are] all these things attached to veganism.”
For more on vegan celebrities, read:
Charlotte is a writer and editor based in sunny Southsea on England’s southern coast.
