From smoking the green to eating green, we love a good vegan story, especially when it comes to the music industry. These rappers have some serious social clout, so the more they spout about being vegan, the better it is for the planet and for the animals.
Check out Plant Faced Clothing’s five favourite rappers that have gone vegan below!
1) RZA
RZA might be rapping about CREAM, but you won’t see him using any anytime soon.
“No animal needs to die for me to live, okay?” said RZA, leader of the Wu-Tang Clan, on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. RZA’s meat-free journey began in 1995 when he gave up red meat, and slowly but surely, he started to cut other animals out of his diet, including fish and poultry. While he is certainly aware that being vegan has its health benefits, he primarily eats plant-based for the animals’ sake. In addition, he’s also passing down his cruelty-free dining ways to his sons, neither of whom have ever consumed a piece of meat in their lives!
In a PeTA advertisement RZA stars in, he explains, “there’s nothing on this planet that doesn’t want to live. I had animals as friends, they were happy to see me in their own animal way. I’m quite sure they did not want to end on my plate”.
In his philosophical memoir, “The Tao of Wu”, RZA spells out, “I don’t need a dead animal or dead piece of flesh to go into my live body. There’s nothing on this planet that doesn’t want to live. I had animals as friends, they were happy to see me in their own animal way. I’m quite sure they did not want to be on my plate.”
RZA continues. “I think hip-hop has become more conscious about diet… You are what you eat, so if this cow who is stressed, dumbfounded, sick becomes your meal, when you eat it, you are eating that stress and sickness. You are eating that fear. My peers and people that are related to me appreciate the vegan lifestyle, it’s really spreading.”
2) Jermaine Dupri
Jermaine Dupri is best known for his single, ‘Welcome to Atlanta,’ featuring Ludacris, and affiliation with Mariah Carey. Now, some 17 years later after that song dropped, Dupri is tackling a new realm outside of the music industry - veganism.
“Feel the beets. Lose the meat,” is Dupri’s new motto. This award-winning music producer, rapper, and hip hop artist wants the world to know that a vegan lifestyle is the best lifestyle. His vegan story started when he went on a master cleanse for 25 days. After realising how wonderful he felt afterward, Dupri dove head-first into the lifestyle, and now, you’ll find Dupri featured on platforms like PETA, The Beet, and more. He’s been vegan for about 14 years now and continues to share the benefits of a vegan lifestyle with his following and the world.
“I feel like anybody that has a problem with their energy level being right—tired all the time—you can definitely feel the difference. A vegan lifestyle puts you on that track to just be healthy. That’s the lifestyle that you have to take on,” says in his video with PETA.
3) Joey Purp
Joey Purp may be best known for his role in SaveMoney, a hip hop group originating in Chicago and founded by rapper Vic Mensa - but what really caught our attention is his vegan lifestyle! Purp, the 27 year old rapper with a very suave flow, went from being a vegetarian to vegan as of 2015, and we celebrate his lifestyle by movin’ and groovin’ in our living rooms to songs like “Elastic.”
“I just feel after researching the human body slightly – I mean I’m not a doctor or anything – but finding out a little bit about the human body and our make-up, and how we’re designed to break things down and stuff like that, I just felt it was the best decision," Joey tells in an interview with music magazine Loud and Quiet, “It’s better for your blood stream, it changes your breathing and your lung capacity. It changes your skin. And the way your skin looks and your skin feels. It’ll change your hair. It’ll change everything. Your nails get stronger. Your body just goes through changes and then you’ll feel more energetic.”
4) A$AP Rocky
A$AP Rocky is the ultimate man of mystery. In fact, there’s even an entire Buzzfeed article delving into the rapper’s unknown and untold stories. For example, did you know that this rap icon visits his grandmother in Harlem every Mother’s Day (and we thought we couldn’t love him anymore than we already do). With that being said, A$AP Rocky has found yet another way to steal our hearts - by being vegan!
In a 2012 interview with Complex, A$AP Rocky shared that he decided to become a pescatarian after finding out about the abuse animals endured before being served as a meal to the masses. Like many of us who live this lifestyle, we snowball from pescatarian to vegetarian to vegan, and A$AP Rocky followed a similar cruelty-free trajectory. He is now vegan, which is slightly evident in his song “Babushka Boi,” where he states, “shit, I ain't duck sauce since I became a vegan.” And with that lyric alone, he has truly stolen our hearts!
5) YG
It’s time to Go Loko, because one of our favourite rappers, YG, is vegan! YG became a vegetarian in 2016 primarily for health reasons and concerns, as he was cognisant of the potential cancers one can get from eating too much processed meat. His exact words? He wants to protect himself from that “cancer s**t,”...and we’re all about it. YG said in a 2019 interview that he gave veganism up but is going to transition back soon, so fingers crossed he made his way back to the plant-based dark side since then!
Are you looking to follow in the vegan footsteps of these incredible music artists? Are you in need of some inspiration to get started on your vegan journey? Then be sure to check out Plant Faced Clothing’s Journal. There, you’ll discover exciting plant-based foods you need to try, vegan baked goods recipes, and so much more.
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