Jermaine Dupri wants people to eat better. The music legend has been a vegan for nearly 20 years and is endorsing the lifestyle to as many people as he can. On April 3, at Clutch Restaurant in Atlanta, Dupri hosted “Meatless Mondays” a day the establishment offers vegan options only.
“I just want to say that the No. 1 killer in the United States is food,” Dupri said. “I’m just trying to help my brothers and sisters out with this every Monday night. This ain’t like a Monday play, this is my real life.”
Other noteworthy artists who eat a plant-based diet are NLE Choppa, Chloe x Halle, RZA, KRS-One, Stic Man, Killah Priest, Common and Erykah Badu. Jay-Z and Beyonce frequently eat plant-based foods, which Dupri said he gives Jay-Z a hard time about because he used to make fun of Dupri for his diet. In 2021, Dupri debuted his JD’s Vegan Ice Cream in Walmart.
Dupri said artists have been mentioning their health problems more and more to him lately.
“A lot of friends keep coming to my studio saying, ‘I just got a health scare,’ ” Dupri said. “Don’t let a health scare make you start eating like this. You can eat like this.”
What does hip-hop teach you about health?
Nothing. Hip-hop won’t teach you anything about health, but I will say that — all right, I’ll take that back. It does. I got introduced to Islam through hip-hop. Islam introduces you to a healthier way of eating.
I guess people got introduced to hip-hop through Jermaine Dupri, and that’s what I’m doing. I’m helping people eat much healthier than they have, and I’m introducing the vegan lifestyle to them.
What has the journey of you going meatless looked like in the past 20 years?
Man, being able to have energy every day, wake up and move early in the morning, stay up, you’ve got to have an interesting diet to do that, right? At one point it wasn’t like that. I used to feel sluggish. I used to be tired all the time. Once I eliminated a lot of things I used to eat and went vegan, it helped me deal with a lot of those issues I used to have.
