Flau’Jae Johnson won a basketball title and then joined Lil Wayne
When Flau’jae Johnson led the Louisiana State University women’s basketball team to a national championship last April, she rose to the top of the sport in her first season on the team. The victory, the school’s first title, also catapulted her to fame as a hip-hop artist, launching a career that has seen her collaborate with rap royalty.
At least twice in the past year, Johnson gave rap performances within 24 hours of a game or practice, in one case as an opening act for chart-topper rapper and singer Rod Wave in Atlanta after traveling from Louisiana on a day off from the field. She walked off stage with cramps after another performance in November; she had scored 17 points in a match hours before her show.
“I know this is what I have to do,” said Johnson, 20, a sophomore guard who averages 14.2 points per game and has more than 62,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. “If you want to become a legend at something, you have to do something no one has done before and execute it at a high level.”
Johnson’s two careers took off this past year, and she’s balancing both as LSU prepares to defend its title in the NCAA Tournament, starting with Friday’s first-round matchup. On the same day, Johnson released ‘AMF (Ain’t My Fault)’, her new song with the rapper NLE Choppa, who asked her and her LSU teammate Angel Reese last year to be in the video for his single “Champions”; they made cameos alongside other top athletes, including boxers Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Mike Tyson. Johnson then tapped NLE Choppa to collaborate on “AMF,” which premiered on Snapchat through a partnership with the multimedia messaging app.
“She redefines and demonstrates the renaissance and revolution that is possible in women’s sports,” said Ketra Armstrong, professor of sports management at the University of Michigan. “She shows not only how to do it, but how to do it masterfully without compromising one for the other.”
Kia Brooks, Johnson’s mother and business manager, estimated that the rapper-hooper has earned nearly $3 million from endorsement deals involving her name, image and likeness, including partnerships with audio equipment manufacturer JBL and sports drink brand Powerade. Johnson also has a distribution deal with Roc Nation and is directing a music video for an upcoming song with Lil Wayne, who became a fan during the 2023 basketball tournament. Since late last year, camera crews have been following Johnson for an Amazon Prime Video documentary that will profile her and other star LSU athletes.
Johnson began rapping at age 7 — about a year after she started playing basketball — partly inspired by her father. Jason Johnson, a rapper who went by Camoflauge, was fatally shot in Savannah, Georgia, in 2003, just months before Johnson was born, but she said she feels his presence every day. Her first name (pronounced FLAW-zhay) is derived from his stage name, Brooks said, and Johnson often mentions him in her songs. She sang a song about gun violence when she participated America has talent at age 14. In an introspective freestyle set to the beat of the Fugees’ “Ready or Not,” Johnson raps, “They killed my daddy while my momma was pregnant, how am I supposed to feel?”
“He is definitely my biggest inspiration,” Johnson said. “I get all my swag from him.”
While in high school, she posted her music on YouTube, building a following that grew alongside fan interest in her plans as a top recruit: she publicly announced her commitment to LSU in a video that also promoted the release of a new song.
Her two-bedroom off-campus apartment doubles as a recording studio, complete with speakers, a microphone and monitors. Her shirts hang on the walls and the home studio also houses her championship ring and lizard. She often composes lyrics during flights to away games and records in her spare time. Fans at her shows hold up four fingers when she performs — a reference to her jersey number.
“I’ve been rapping and playing basketball my whole life,” Johnson said. “Now that they see me on different stages, they always ask, ‘How do you do that?’ But it’s like, I do it. Come in the summer, play basketball during basketball season, and then go about my day.”
But now the victory lap for last year’s title is over. And just as she’s taking on challengers on the court, Johnson has seen social media commentators try to discredit her rapping skills. “Go to the gym,” is a common remark, she said. But she said those jabs only serve as motivation.
“You can have a talent for multiple things and I don’t think people are used to that,” she said.
