(hip hop music playing)
—[Chef Zu] Hip hop's always been, like,
this organizational mindset of, like,
helping the children who are at risk
and in a low-income community have something to do
so that they stay out of trouble.
And now I get to the point that I'm seeing some
of my favorite artists as I was a child are dying.
—[Grey] It's like, bro, hip hop and health need to be
in the same sentence, period, dog.
You know what I mean? Like, there's no use
getting filthy rich and being sick.
—[Chef Zu] If we don't keep these people healthy,
then they can't help the children.
And if we don't help the children,
then we don't have a future.
So now it's like, how can you take health and wellness
and kind of, like, inject it into hip hop
so that you can help the hip hop community live longer?
(hip hop music)
—I want you all to hear this out.
You can raise the monitors up too.
We gonna kick it a little something like this.
Now, I want you to listen.
This is a drug, and I want you all to understand the lyrics,
so just chill and listen very closely.
(laughs)
It's called beef. What a relief!
When will this poisonous product cease?
This is another public service announcement.
You can believe it or you can doubt it.
Let us begin now with the cow.
The way it gets to your plate and how.
The cow doesn't grow fast enough for man.
So through his greed, he makes a faster plan.
He has drugs to make a cow grow quicker.
Through the stress, the cow gets sicker.
Twenty-one different drugs are pumped.
—Hip hop
had nine elements,
almost like nine key virtues and principles
that everybody's supposed to, you know, follow.
So four years ago, they inducted the 10th element.
The 10th element was health and wellness.
It's just like it gave me a chance to present something
to people through, like, another lens.
—[Announcer] And he said: "You know what, brother?
I'm trying to make my music like the Ice Cube
of the plant-based world."
I said: "That's a mean idea, bruh. That's a mean idea."
—Eight sixteens popping like some grease
that's in the fryer.
Popping like some...
(background beat)
Uh, sixteens popping like some grease that's in a fryer.
Shit, I missed a couple weeks. They held my feet
down to the fire.
Want the music, I've been moving.
No excuses, wanna buy it.
Since I switched that cheese to Daiya,
got them vegans in a riot.
Plant based drippin, all of my attire.
Deals are clean now, 40 number sweet as a papaya.
Said she want the truth.
I think she preaching to the choir.
Introduced her to that juice,
I left her speechless like Mariah.
Every Friday, I would jump in my car and do a freestyle.
It's called Grey Can't Freestyle, and it was just
any other Friday.
It was just the right time. I got on Instagram.
I hear Suede, you know, the Remix God, he made a beat.
I hear beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes.
I'm like: "Bro, this beat is hard, dog.
Like, I'm gonna do my freestyle over this beat."
(music starts)
Whoa!
That's right, I got...
Ain't fucking with the...
No sir, baby.
Ain't got no...
But you know I got...
No...
My music changed when my diet changed,
because my mind changed.
I started to ask myself, "How can I use my gift
to empower, enlighten people or to inspire people,
and what do people get out of it?"
(music starts)
Spread love, push peace, be supportive with my people.
Come together for the feeling's euphoric, true story.
Listen.
Young black man, don't you know you invented
about everything, everything, everything, everything.
Young man, you invented everything.
Yeah.
—[Chef Zu] We talking about who got the loud.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
Like, you know.
He like, "I got that chronic."
And he like, "I got that O.G."
And you talking about you got collard greens?
Like, I'm trying to be cool, man.
You know what I'm saying?
I got my shades on. I'm trying to smoke blunts
and drink forties, man. You know what I'm saying?
It's definitely run through the hip hop community.
You know, like smoking too much, drinking too much,
being in the clubs late night at three, four in the morning.
So now you're, like, sleep deprived; you're dehydrated;
you're not eating right.
Like, for instance, Phife Dawg... I don't know if he
was 43 years old when he died?
I think he was 40-something.
But, like, to lose one of the members of Tribe Called Quest,
like, under 50?
That's unacceptable.
But it was because of complications that would come
from diabetes, and then from there it's just like
you're kind of snowballing into sickness.
So now it's like people are really starting to notice.
—[Grey] Like mac and cheese, the collard greens,
the black-eyed peas, and get a roast of that tofu turkey.
Got cornbread, even got stuffing.
Mashed potatoes so good, put your hands in it.
String beans and you know we got yams with it.
Got cabbage and greens with no ham in it.
People are like: "OK, this stuff we're eating
may not be too healthy. Let's try this vegan thing."
I think, like, now it's in the experimental stage.
Everybody's, like, trying to see what this lifestyle can bring
and if it can help.
(music fades out)