Posted by The COVID-19 pandemic has really opened people’s eyes to the importance of a healthy immune system. Hand sanitizer, frequent hand washing and masks have become the norm as the world enters year three of the pandemic. Plant-based diets, in particular, have been popular among health fanatics and countless restaurants are adjusting to the vegan boom.
But legendary producer Pete Rock wants nothing to do with Kentucky Fried Chicken’s new plant-based chicken option as he made clear in a recent Instagram post. On Wednesday (January 5), the veteran beat magician shared a photo of KFC’s latest venture with the caption, “Y’all go head and keep dat. You trust that i gotta bridge i wanna sell ya.”
Rock’s take is in stark contrast to So So Def founder Jermaine Dupri’s ethos. The longtime music mogul has been vegan for over 15 years and recently launched his new non-dairy frozen dessert in over 700 Walmart stores. Just last week, Durpi shared an Instagram photo of himself sitting in front of JD’s Vegan display and proudly proclaimed, “We really did it!!! Yes! I’m over the moon,736 @walmart stores out the gate. go to JDsvegan.com, type in your zip code and find what store is close to you.”
Jermaine Dupri Used To Joke With JAY-Z About Going Vegan & Now, Hov & Beyoncé Are Plant-Based Food Advocates
During an August 2020 interview with HipHopDX, Dupri said he partly influenced JAY-Z and his wife Beyoncé to go (mostly) vegan years ago. The famous couple started their plant-based journey in 2013 and launched a vegan meal service in 2019 called 22 Days Nutrition with Marco Borges, their personal trainer and author of The Greenprint.
“I won’t say that I was responsible for them going, but I will say that we used to laugh about it,” he admits. “I was vegan and used to go to 40/40 all the time and have conversations with Hov and be like, ‘Yo man, when you going to put some vegan on the menu?’ And he’ll make a joke like, ‘Man, just have a hamburger. Don’t worry about it.’
“I was pushing him to do something at 40/40. This was a long time ago. Like, ‘Yo man, you need to get something on the menu for me that I can eat.’ And we used to have these conversations, then one day I woke up and he and Beyoncé was doing a vegan diet, a 24-day vegan diet. And I was like, ‘I can’t believe this shit.’ It’s a funny thing. I’m happy that they did it. And I’m glad that they did it. I can’t say I’m responsible, but we used to definitely joke about it.”