Jermaine Dupri Rolls Out JD’s Vegan Ice Cream

Jermaine Dupri is not only a successful musician, producer, and businessman — he’s also a powerful voice for animals, and he often takes part in initiatives to encourage others to embrace the vegan lifestyle. In fact, Jermaine Dupri recently launched a vegan ice cream brand. But is Jermaine Dupri vegan?

You better believe he is! Jermaine Dupri has been vegan for almost 15 years. He’s done so much to help the animals over the years, such as starting his own plant-based ice cream brand.

On Nov. 16, 2021, Jermaine Dupri partnered with Big Innovations Group Inc. to unveil JD’s Vegan, a new plant-based ice cream brand. To develop JD’s vegan ice creams, Dupri worked with Malcolm Stogo, an ice cream expert who founded Ice Cream University in 1995, as noted in a press release.

“JD's Vegan ice creams taste as good as, or better than, the real thing,” Dupri said in a statement. “You don't have to lose anything going vegan. JD's Vegan ice cream proves you can gain nothing but quality foods with out-of-this-world flavor and taste.”

JD’s vegan will start with six coconut-based flavors: Apple Butter, which is made with fresh apple butter and a toasty cinnamon streusel crumble; Strawberry Sweetheart, which features strawberry puree swirls and strawberry pieces; Welcome to Atlanta Peach Cobbler, which is made with golden peach slices and crumbled cobbler; Chocolate My Way, made with dark chocolate and vanilla bean; (404) Cookies & Cream, made with chopped-up chocolate cookies; and Key Lime Pie, which features key lime zest and graham crackers.

In addition to of course being vegan, each frozen dessert is also non-GMO, free of artificial flavors, and designed to taste rich and creamy.

“A lot of people who are involved in the vegan brands are not vegan,” Dupri told Rolling Stone. “I don’t know how people who are not vegan can be trustworthy in this space for us. I felt it was important for somebody like myself to produce something.”

JD’s Vegan ice cream is being sold exclusively at Walmart. As of launch, you can order them via Walmart’s website, and beginning Dec. 28, you can buy them in Walmart stores across the U.S.

As Dupri said in a 2018 video for PETA, his vegan journey began around 2006, when he went on a 25-day cleanse. He felt great, and experienced elevated energy levels — and as he wondered how to sustain that feeling, a few people suggested he go vegan. So he went for it, and never looked back.

“I want the world to know: The vegan lifestyle, to me, is the best lifestyle, and I want to get the world into this,” Dupri said in the PETA campaign, which was titled, “Feel the beets. Lose the meats. Go vegan.”

Dupri has partnered with a few vegan brands over the years, including cult-favorite Atlanta restaurant Slutty Vegan, serving as DJ for the restaurant’s first anniversary party in 2019, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also partnered with Impossible Foods in the fall of 2020 to help encourage nationwide voter registration, in a push for voting rights.

And in August 2020, Dupri joined plant-based news website The Beet as creative advisor. A few months later, in November, he promoted The Beet’s #PlantBasedForADay challenge, encouraging people to try eating vegan for 24 hours to help the planet, animals, and personal health, in honor of World Vegan Day and Month.

On Dec. 29, 2021, Jermaine Dupri took to Instagram to confirm that JD's Vegan ice cream is now available at 736 Walmart stores. "We really did it!!! Yes! I’m over the moon," Dupri posted, adding that customers can look up the nearest Walmart store that carries his desserts on the Walmart website.

This article has been updated.