Flau'jae Johnson performing at the Axios and Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment Women's Sports House at the Cannes Lions Festival for Creativity in Cannes, France on June 18th, 2024. Photo: Sean T. Smith/Axios
Flau'jae Johnson's long-awaited collaboration with Lil Wayne will finally drop next Friday.
Why it matters: The LSU women's basketball star pulls double duty as a performing artist, and the collaboration track will be part of her aptly titled EP, "Best of Both Worlds," Axios' Chelsea Brasted writes.
The project came about after WNBA legend Sue Bird challenged Lil Wayne to reach out to the young rapper and basketball star, Johnson told me in an interview at the Axios Women's Sports House.
The big picture: Since being part of the team that won LSU's first women's basketball national championship, "I've been living the dream," she said.
Zoom in: Growing up in Savannah, Georgia, Johnson was inspired to be a performing artist by her father, a rapper who went by the name Camoflauge. He was shot and killed outside a recording studio in 2003, several months before Johnson was born.
"I actually just kind of kept working on it and got good at it," she said. "And it was something that I felt like was in my blood, honestly."
The fine print: That deal leaves a lot of control in Johnson's hands, she said.
"I could still own my own masters, still have creative control and kind of be my own boss," she said.
What's next: A music video for the collaboration "is definitely going to be LSU," Johnson teased.
"When you go to a college, you become a part of the whole," she said. "I'm dying a Tiger, I'll tell you that. I really wanted to make [the video] LSU-themed and just give something for Louisiana to hold onto."
