Flau’jae Johnson Steals the Spotlight — on the Court and the Stage

“Came to LSU my freshman calendar year and we created record,” is not only a line in Flau’jae Johnson’s 13-track mixtape “4 My Fans.” It is also an exact description of the rapper and LSU basketball player’s life because she gained the 2023 NCAA championship as LSU’s All-American guard. Given that individuals lyrics turned a fact, the 5-foot-10 multihyphenate’s life has been on a quick monitor. She’s been highlighted in a Tremendous Bowl commercial, secured several bargains with athletics and life-style brand names, and signed a multimillion-greenback offer with Jay-Z’s label, Roc Country.

This previous March Insanity, Johnson produced headlines when the LSU Tigers lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes in the semifinals and the group spoke honestly about their ordeals with the media. Her aid of Angel Reese, a fellow Black woman Tiger, was poignant. But despite the psychological second, Johnson believes all the protection of women’s sports activities is a excellent thing. “LSU, Catilin Clark, South Carolina — these are great storylines and individuals are receiving additional intrigued to see, which is only likely to improve,” she claims.

Johnson, 20, commenced taking part in basketball as shortly as she could stroll, and she recognized she could consider her skills significantly when she held beating boys on the elementary school courts. Kia Brooks, the athlete’s mom and supervisor, place her in Beginner Athletic Union Circuit, or aggressive, basketball. It was in this article that her enjoy of the sport grew. The Savannah, GA, native’s powerful target led her to rating above 1,900 points throughout her superior university job, and she turned the all-time leading scorer for her school’s group right before discovering her area on the LSU women’s group, wherever she averaged 14.9 factors for every video game throughout the ’23-24 season and 11 in the course of the ’22-23 season.

Like most great athletes, Johnson is the to start with 1 on the court and the very last just one off. Increasing at 5 a.m. every single early morning just before course, the star player likes to choose at minimum 500 pictures a day to manage her follow. But she has various commitments, and her demanding plan involves several hours in the health and fitness center, conditioning and actively playing studio sessions used recording new tracks and mixtapes and time to unwind and link with family. “It truly is about currently being disciplined in my plan,” she says.

Now, right before you begin imagining Johnson’s music vocation took off for the reason that of her NCAA fame, think all over again. The multitalented entrepreneur has been undertaking given that she was 7. As the daughter of Jason Johnson — also known as Camoflauge, a well-known Ga-spot rapper who was tragically killed ahead of her birth — Johnson has generally utilised rapping as a way to continue on her father’s legacy.

“I try out to enable folks go via what they are heading as a result of,” the rapper shares of the indicating driving her lyrics. “It is generally a little something I’m likely through, way too. I just know how to bottle it up and set it in songs. It can be like treatment.”

Johnson was only 12 when she appeared on Lifetime’s “The Rap Sport,” a television series hosted by Jermaine Dupri that includes aspiring kid rappers. At 14, she was on the 13th season of “America’s Bought Talent,” and took the two possibilities as a way to improve her brand name and greatly enhance her musical talents. Now, the Ga star has extra than 300,000 every month listeners on Spotify.

Handling a full-time university basketball timetable and rap job would make numerous people’s heads spin. But Johnson sees it as a blessing to be equipped to use two of her items concurrently. It was the rationale she selected LSU as her college in accordance to Johnson, it was the only faculty that supplied choices for her to realize success in the two. But for the duration of basketball time, the star focuses on the activity, dedicating only a few to 4 hours a working day for tunes.

“It gets demanding, time administration wise. I am however working on that,” Johnson shares. “That is just one of the techniques when I get that a single all the way down pat, I’ll be gone. I might be equipped to execute tips and all the things I want.”

Johnson has an interesting yr ahead with basketball and the May possibly launch of her new venture, “Best of Both of those Worlds.” As her 1st official EP, “Finest of Both equally Worlds” offers 9 music, like one particular that options hip-hop icon Lil Wayne. The seem represents a departure for Johnson.

“I can’t wait around for people to hear this,” the musician claims. “Ain’t My Fault,” or AMF for quick, is one particular of the a few tracks on the EP that was introduced early. That includes Memphis rapper NLE Choppa, the music presents nostalgic nods to her late father and her basketball purpose models. She raps, “Balling like my daddy, stunning like my daddy” and “I maintain on pimpin’ like I’m Scottie,” a tribute to Scottie Pippen, the previous Bulls forward. Johnson says she used a very little a lot less than a calendar year crafting the tracks.

Regardless of all her interesting accomplishments, Johnson hasn’t usually been cheered on by the general public. “I have been finding way far more loathe than I at any time did in my lifetime,” she shares. But she chooses to convert the other cheek: “I see it, admit it, but I you should not permit it get to me. Simply because I’m capable to pick out irrespective of whether it impacts me or not, I do not even allow it get that much.”

That doesn’t signify she is not privy to the headlines, both positive and adverse. And she is conscious that she’s getting scrutinized for getting a Black lady in America, and that she has Black girls looking up to her. “It is just not essentially a weight, but it is extremely nerve-racking getting in the public eye,” she claims. “They get a scope on you, so you’ve got to just transfer in a certain way, especially when you encourage so lots of people today. Then trying to just navigate that with staying a common child, it can be a whole lot.”

But all the hard get the job done and commitment has been worth it. Johnson has monetized her title, impression, and likeness (NIL) by means of a lot of sports drinks, style, and elegance specials. In accordance to On3, her NIL is valued at $1.1 million. And alongside one another, Brooks and Johnson have become a mom-daughter electric power duo that has landed bargains with Powerade, Nike, Puma, Meta, JBL Audio, Experian, and quite a few other makes.

Where numerous 20-year-olds may well rebel towards their mother and father, Johnson retains Brooks close. “I just know she’s obtained the best interest in me at coronary heart,” the stage guard states of their expert romance. “Nobody’s heading to have my most effective interest like my mom. She’s realized the match, discovered how to deal with, and realized so a great deal things [to get me where I needed to be] that it only created sense that she’d be my supervisor and wander me by these doors. I just imagined, maintain my mother by my side.”

In addition to relatives associations, Johnson retains a solid tie to her hometown. In 2018, Johnson grew to become the initial teenager to receive Savannah’s vital to the town, and she is extremely concerned and fully commited to supplying again to her group and condition. Throughout her collegiate career, the star has teamed up with her several donors to gift headphones, university outfits, and athletics shoes to little ones in Ga.

Carrying out this perform, Johnson’s next major aim is to develop a resource centre for the young children in Savannah. “I want to supply the children in my metropolis with an outlet wherever they can go to engage in sports, be innovative, and master,” she states. Johnson is very mindful that this requires a lot of time, means, and dedication, and she’s in it for the extensive haul. “I want my brand and small business to improve mainly because I don’t want to do that just on vacations. I want to help the economic system and surroundings during the calendar year. I am remaining in school so I can understand small business and gather the instruments necessary to correctly see these goals out.”

In every thing she does, Johnson hopes to be an inspiration for some others and preserve the momentum up all-around women’s sports. “The presence that women’s athletics occupies is so beautiful,” Johnson suggests. “Ultimately, it can be our time. Women’s athletics and basketball is heading nowhere at any time shortly. It truly is just going to be normalized.”

Natasha Marsh is a freelance author who writes about vogue, beauty, and lifestyle. Prior to freelancing, she held styling workers positions at The Wall Road Journal, Burberry, Cosmopolitan Journal, British GQ, and Harpers Bazaar.