Flau’jae Johnson’s basketball career is taking off. So is her rapping career, with an EP on the way and a spot at Jay-Z’s music festival in Philadelphia.
The LSU basketball star will perform at the annual Made in America festival, which is headlined by SZA and Lizzo. The lineup for the event, which will take place over Labor Day weekend, also includes Atlanta rapper Latto, who featured LSU’s Angel Reese in her recent music video.
Johnson is also set to release an EP titled “Best of Both Worlds,” though the release date has not yet been announced.
Her success in both arenas of her life should come as no surprise. As a basketball player, she excelled on the court in high school to the point that her jersey was retired before she even graduated, and then she helped the Tigers win a national title in her freshman year at LSU. As a musician, she was featured on “The Rap Game” and twice appeared on “America’s Got Talent” for her rap skills.
This summer, her hometown of Savannah, Georgia, is set to name an intersection after her, capped off by a concert and a cookout. And after that, she’ll set her sights on going back-to-back on national titles with LSU.
The young star draws inspiration from her father Jason Johnson, a prominent rapper in the local music scene who was shot and killed months before Johnson was born.
“Just being who he was, I feel like it’s just in me. I get inspired, but it’s really in me to do great things,” she told USA Today. “I feel like he’s who I look up to, especially in music. Cadences and flows and rhymes that I do are inspired by him. He still has a lot of inspiration on everything that I do.”
Johnson’s success has come with the hope of getting into the studio with fellow athlete and rapper Damian Lillard, who also is a star in the NBA. She’s also working on a track with Lil Wayne, and three-time Grammy winner Wyclef Jean has indicated that he wants to work with Johnson.
And thanks to NIL, she can capitalize on the success of both her basketball and rap careers.
“It’s a blessing to have NIL because now I can sell my music and my merch and my name, image and likeness and anything else I want to do, so it’s great,” she said. “… There’s literally nothing you can’t do with NIL. You just gotta be creative.”
