Waka Flocka Says Ever-Changing Rules Has Made Him Shed "Vegan" Label

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Rapper Waka Flocka Flame is no longer labeling himself vegan. In fact, he’s a little frustrated with the whole concept at the moment.

“I dropped the vegan card,” the 31-year-old rapper said in an interview with PAPER after being asked if he was still vegan. “I think the public scared me from being vegan. I got so conditioned, I got blinded from what’s really vegan. I got conditioned to just reading the label, and somebody says it’s vegan, so therefore it’s healthy. And it really wasn’t vegan.”

And for someone who even went as far to collaborate with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to speak on his experiences as a vegan, wanting to move away from such labels has been a struggle for him since cutting animal products from his diet in 2014. However, he still wants to eat clean and consciously.

“I’m at a crisis with myself. I’m at a battle with myself right now when it comes to this,” he said. “What I call myself now is a conscious eater, meaning I’m conscious about the things I put in my mouth, and about the things that I drink.”

In the interview, it seems that the “Round of Applause” rapper is a bit conflicted about what’s expected of him. From preserving animal life but forgoing care for plant life to not even being able to eat honey? The rules started to wear thin on him.

“I think saying that I’m a vegan is like putting a title on me,” he told the magazine. “I’m making myself sound like I’m better than somebody else. If I’m saying I’m vegan and you’re not vegan, what does that make you? A sloppy motherf–ker? It f–ks with me. Just to seem like, ‘Yo, you shouldn’t eat meat, that’s not good!’ Like who’s to say you can’t eat meat? Technically, a plant has just as much life as an animal does, they just don’t have the common sense or mindset, but it’s the same power of life, it feels everything that we feel. When I started reading that vegans can’t eat honey, I was like, y’all going too far. Let me fall back.”

So for the time being, Waka and his family have switched to the Pescatarian diet. He still respects the vegan diet, but fellow vegans he says might want to tone it down a little bit.

“They scare people and sh-t, like people are really scared of vegans. They’re like the f–king cops,” he said. “When vegans are around, people be trying to throw their food under the table, like oh, the vegans! [laughing]”

But for the record, he told TMZ after the fact that he’s not 100 percent done with eating vegan. He just doesn’t want people to look to him as an authority on any of it because he doesn’t agree with certain things. Instead, call him a “conscious eater.”

“I didn’t retire. What it is is, I don’t want to be a poster child,” he said. “Don’t credit me for sh-t that I don’t understand. I feel like people kind of, it was like a tool to get money or more of like self-empowerment. It was like saying, ‘Hey, I’m better than you because I’m vegan.’ I’m not like that. I had too many deals coming in like, ‘Yo, stand in front of my company.’ But three years ago, I ate what’s vegan and today it ain’t vegan. They’re just slapping ‘vegan’ on a box. I’m not the vegan they want me to be. It ain’t fun how it’s supposed to be. It’s too natural. They’re trying to make it too too natural. ‘You can’t wear designer clothes because you vegan. You can’t eat honey.’ You can eat honey! You can’t eat the honey today because it’s processed. That sh-t ain’t vegan, of course. It’s crazy. It’s going too far in my opinion. It’s healthy as f–k, so I’m not going to go eat a T-bone steak. But they’re like the f–king cops. I’m not the vegan they want me to be. I’m a conscious eater, meaning I’m conscious about the things I put in my mouth. I know the ingredients in the food, I know the chemicals, if there are chemicals, I know what that cup is made of, and if I’m eating out of this plastic utensil, I know what it’s doing. I’m a ‘conscious eater.'”