LSU women's basketball star Flau'jae Johnson explains how she balances sports and music

Flau'jae Johnson embodies the title of her upcoming EP, "Best of Both Worlds."

The LSU guard was named the 2023 SEC Freshman of the Year and helped power the Tigers to their first women's basketball national championship last season. She is also a revered force as a rapper.

Amid her busy schedule, Johnson frequently gives back and, earlier this month, she appeared at USA TODAY's High School Sports Awards for the Bayou Region, which she said was "so cool." She shared lessons she learned from her time at Sprayberry High School, including the importance of being a good teammate.

"I told them it was gonna be a transition from, a mental transition, from high school to college," she told USA TODAY Sports, "and then how to adapt and try to find the best routine and just be a hard worker."

Before shining at LSU, Johnson made her mark at Sprayberry as the team's all-time leading scorer. The school retired her No. 4 jersey while she was still a student.

"That was unbelievable," she reflected. "That was like legendary for me."

The commemoration in her hometown won't end there as she will be honored with an intersection in Savannah, Ga. named after her this summer. The major cross streets of Abercorn Street and West Montgomery Cross Road will bear her name after a ceremony, which will include a concert and a cookout.

"I think that's a huge honor. That's something that's going to be etched in the history forever!" she said. "I can't even believe it. I think I'm going to really only believe it when it's really up on the freakin' highway and I'm like, 'Wow.'"

"She graduated and she came and accepted the mantle to want to go to college and to be freshman of the year and win the championship," representative Carl Gilliard, who proposed the bill, told Fox 28 Savannah. "I want it to be known, we were working on this since the beginning of January, and I think Flau’jae Johnson is an example of opportunities for other young people to know they can move from being a youngster with vision and bringing it to fruition."

Flau'jae Johnson on her rap career

Johnson's ties to her community run deep as she is the daughter of Jason Johnson, who also made music under the name Camouflage. He was a legend in the local music scene but was shot and killed months before his daughter 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 said. "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 said that the emotive storytelling track "No Love" is her favorite song by her father. His influence is evident in her songs such as "Ready or Not Freestyle" over the iconic Fugees beat, and "The Voice" where she expresses her desire to speak for those who don't have a platform.

Johnson has been rapping since she was a child, and she has been featured on "The Rap Game" and was twice on "America's Got Talent." But a recent event forced her to reexamine the waters of having a public persona. She made headlines last month when her remix of Latto's "Put It On Da Floor" received criticism for a lyric that referenced the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. At the time, she took down the video and reposted a second version of the song with new lyrics.

"I learned that I have a wider audience and it's a lot more people listening to my songs," she said. "So all I gotta do is show I'm not, you know, putting anybody in position to feel like I'm disrespecting them or something like that. But keep making music and keep being myself, but learn from that from like a social media side."

Flau'jae Johnson's music and basketball careers are intertwined

Johnson said she balances both her music and basketball with a strict schedule. She said she is hoping to get in the studio with fellow athlete/rapper and NBA star Damian Lillard this offseason and has a song in the works with hip-hop icon Lil Wayne. Earlier this month, she released "Big 4 Anthem," a trapped out banger where she raps about being on the grind while also having a good time.

Johnson's success both on the court and on the charts might not have been possible without the NCAA adopting name, image and likeness policy in 2021. Previously, Miami Hurricanes defensive end Chad Thomas made music as a producer and was paid for a beat he did on Rick Ross's "Rather You Than Me" album. But no college athlete has built a brand quite the way that Johnson has. She won the Innovator of the Year award at this year's NIL Summit for how she's utilized the opportunities given to her.

"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."

For Johnson, basketball and music are not separate, but they are deeply intertwined. She inked a distribution deal with Jay Z's Roc Nation at 17 because LaMelo Ball's manager, Jermaine Jackson, was recruiting her for an AAU team and had connections to the label. Her national profile increased when LSU won its first women's title, which also boosted her streams.

Johnson said she enjoyed the moment of the championship and all that came with it, but she's ready for what's next.

"It was fun, but like you always got to look to the next step," she said. "… I’m ready to go back and compete, compete every day and I'm just so so so so excited."