Flau'jae is Watching Her Master Plan Unfold

As her future continues to prove fruitful the rapper and LSU basketball star is going with the flow.

Alex Gonzalez | 0 Minutes Ago

Flau'jae Johnson has a promising future in rap and basketball, and is currently navigating both avenues. / Trebreh Baaheth

Flau’jae Johnson may not know what the future holds, but she’s ready to embrace what’s next. The 21-year-old LSU Tigers guard has quickly become one of the most prominent names in college basketball, but she is also on her way to becoming a household name in rap.

This past summer, Flau’jae made a name for herself in hip-hop with an electrifying performance at the "ESPY Awards" after dropping her second EP “Best of Both Worlds.” She also went viral with the EP’s Lil Wayne collaboration “Came Out a Beast.”

Mar 10, 2024; Greensville, SC, USA; LSU Lady Tigers guard Flau'jae Johnson (4) during the first half against the South Carolina Gamecocks / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Her class schedule is keeping her busy, as well as college basketball season, which is underway as we chat via Zoom on a November morning — the same day the deluxe version of “Best of Both Worlds” drops. At the time, Flau’jae has just gotten out of watching film recaps from previous games.

While she seems to carry both the loads of rap and basketball well, Flau’jae admits she grew up with her sights set on rap more than on sports.

“I never thought there was a future for a woman in sports,” she says, “Like, you know what I'm saying? I knew about the WNBA…and not to disrespect it, but a young girl wasn't growing up being like, ‘I want to go to the WNBA,’ that wasn't a thing. But it was also just me not knowing where I fit in.”

Even as a child, music was something that ignited a fire within her. In the days ahead of our conversation, Flau’jae had been sharing videos from her stints on “The Rap Game” and “America’s Got Talent.” In many of her early childhood bars, she alludes to her late father, rapper Jason “Camoflauge” Johnson, who was murdered in May 2003 — about six months before Flau’jae was born — in a case that remains unsolved.

Her missing through her music was to carry on her father’s legacy, but she reveals that artists like Nicki Minaj showed her from a young age that women can dominate the hip-hop landscape.

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“I was a Barb, I’m not gonna lie,” Flau’jae says. “It was all Nicki growing up, but growing up, when I knew I wanted to be an artist, so I did my research, and I started listening to Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Missy, and Roxanne Shanté. I wanted to grasp what female hip-hop embodied before.”

As she channels the great femcees of yesteryear, Flau’jae has earned the respect of hip-hop veterans.

“The thing that [Flau’jae] really has the most is that she wants it,” says Jermaine Dupri, diamond hip-hop producer and host of “The Rap Game.” “She understands how good she is. She also understands how much better she can be and her mission to be a two-way superstar.”

Her “Came Out a Beast” collaborator Lil Wayne has also sung her praises. The collaboration was born at the urging of Sue Bird, who had asked Wayne if he was ever going to work with Flau’jae. He replied expressing interest in working with her, and the track was cut in a matter of weeks.

Flau'jae Johnson is carrying on her late father's legacy through rap, while also honoring legendary women MCs. / Trebreh Baaheth

Earlier this month, Wayne brought out Flau’jae as a surprise guest at his Lil Weezyana Fest in New Orleans, and the two performed the song live.

“At first I was nervous [about performing at Lil Weezyana],” Flau’jae says. “But then when I went on there, like, ‘Dang, this is my moment,’ it was one of the moments where there’s nothing to be nervous about, because you’ve gotta conquer it, and that’s something I did.”

Her home studio consists of a simple set-up: headphones, KRK speakers, an Apollo Twin X audio interface, a distressor and compressor, and a Neumann Microphone. When it comes to her approach — whether it be freestyling in the booth or writing out her rhymes ahead of time — Flau’jae says it’s simply a matter of how intentional she wants to be with each song.

A highlight from the “Best of Both Worlds” deluxe edition — the confident and brash “Master Plan" —was one of the songs that proved challenging for her, as Flau’jae was determined to intertwine both conscious storytelling and natural flows.

“I freestyled that s**t like 20 times in the studio, trying to get flows and cadences,” Flau’jae says, “and then I went and wrote over the cadences.”

Flau’jae admits that some of the more melodic, uptempo songs, like “Big Bag” and the NLE Choppa-assisted “AMF” are more difficult to put together, as she prefers the more lowkey, conscious tracks. But she’s aware that the more upbeat tracks “be the fan favorites” and knows that they’ll eventually grow on her.

“A lot of people gravitate towards Flau’jae is because she’s not locked in one box,” NLE Choppa says. “You can't just say Flau’jae is this,’ she's a multitude. That's what the world needs to see. Let people know that you don't have to be a one-trick pony, you can have different horses in the stable.”

In addition to rap and basketball, Flau’jae also hosts the “Best of Both Worlds” podcast, which has brought on guests like Damien Lillard, Kahleah Copper, Master P, and her mother and manager Kia Brooks. In one notable episode from this past summer, Flau’jae shared that if she were recruited by the WNBA at this point in her college career, she would drop out of college and opt to go pro, to the chagrin of Brooks.

Another memorable moment from the podcast came from a conversation with her fellow LSU athlete Livvy Dunne, during which, the gymnast shared that her boyfriend Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes will often send private jets for her when he misses her.

Both Flau’jae and Dunne appeared on Prime Video’s “The Money Game: LSU” docuseries this past September. The docuseries followed a group of athletes from the university as they navigate fame, as well as name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals.

“From Livvy, I’ve learned how to just up my game, especially on social media,” Flau’jae says. “Sshe's so good at it. People can say what they want, but she's so smart, she knows how to build her brand, and she's a business woman. Even just watching the TV show that we were on together, it inspired me, like, Oh yeah, I gotta lock in and try to figure out how to get on that level,’ you know what I'm saying?”

At 21 years old, Flau’jae knows the world is her oyster, but she’s already looking out for the next generation. Back in August, she revealed on social media that she had purchased acres of land in her home state of Georgia with the mission to create generational wealth. In October, she shared that she now owns a total of 20 acres of land.

Flau'jae Johnson has a vibrant future ahead of her, but is also looking out for the next generation / Trebreh Baaheth

Though Flau’jae’s plans with the property are still in the works, she said she intends on building affordable housing. “I feel like you can't really live and eat at the same time in this economy,” she says.

She also shares that she is working with Van R. Johnson, the mayor of Savannah, Georgia, to develop a resource center for children.

“I ain't really put out there yet, because, it's not super, super finalized” Flau’jae says, “but it's happening. Just building that resource center for the kids, that's gonna be huge.”

As for herself, Flau’jae is taking one thing at a time. With her junior basketball season on the horizon, she finds herself nervous as she nears closer and closer to the post-grad world, but plans to handle things as they come her way.

“I got bubble guts,” Flau’jae says. “I was just a freshman, bro, like, I wasn't even going to be thinking about this for a long time. And now we’re here. I just gotta pray about it and let it be, because life is going to keep coming. I just gotta just go with the flow and focus on one thing at a time.”

Flau'Jae talks with fans during the 2nd Annual Flau'Jae Back to School Give Back Festival on Friday, July 26, 2024 / Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News / USA TODAY NETWORK

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ALEX GONZALEZ