Vegan Pioneers in Hip-Hop Culture, Part 1 of 2

Today, veganism is taking the hip-hop world by storm. Lawrence Parker is a rapper from New York City who goes by the stage name KRS-One. In 1990, KRS-One released the song “Beef,” which was aimed at educating his co-citizens about the animal-people factory industry, as well as the harm done to human health from eating animal-people flesh.

Texas, USA-born singer- songwriter, record producer, actress, rhythm-and-blues (R&B) soul, and hip-hop artist, Erykah Badu (vegan) has been a vegetarian since she was a senior in high school and a vegan since the early 2000s. Erykah Badu has spoken at vegan festivals, hosted vegan dinners for A-list celebrities, and used her platform to empower Earth’s citizens to shift to a planet-friendly lifestyle. “If it is not in alignment with nature, it is not for us.”

Another Grammy Award- winning female hip-hop and R&B artist loves to talk about her own vegan transformation. “When I went vegan, I reversed my anemia, I also reversed my osteopenia, I didn’t have any breaks, I didn’t have any fractures, which was strange to me.” In 2019, she even took winners of her “Vegan Challenge” on vacation to Costa Rica.

Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (vegan), known by his stage name RZA, is a founding member of the legendary hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan that has been producing hit songs for over 30 years. According to vegnews.com, 80% of the band members are vegan. In 2021, RZA partnered with vegan cheese brand Violife and non-profit Global Impact for an initiative called Plant Grants, which provides grant money and mentorship to African-American-owned and operated food businesses.

Founded by the DJ and musician Keith Tucker (vegan) in 2009, Hip Hop Is Green (HHIG) is a non-profit and is the first hip-hop-centered plant-based health and wellness organization in the world. Over the last fourteen years, the project has led to the first plant-based Hip Hop tours and served over 20,000 plant-based meals to children across the United States.