On Jan. 17th, POWERADE proudly announced the addition of college basketball standouts Flau’Jae Johnson from Louisiana State University (LSU) and Isaiah Collier from the University of Southern California (USC) to its roster of athlete partners.
Flau’Jae and Isaiah join an impressive lineup of athletes associated with POWERADE through the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) initiative. This includes highly rated 2024 NFL Draft prospects such as LSU Tigers QB Jayden Daniels and FSU Seminoles DE Jared Verse, along with UGA Bulldogs QB Malaki Starks, USC Trojans WR Mario Williams, and Iowa Hawkeyes RB Kalen Johnson.
In addition to individual athlete partnerships, POWERADE serves as the Official Hydration Partner for over 20 college programs, including LSU and USC.
Flau’Jae and Isaiah will feature prominently in upcoming national marketing campaigns, retail and sponsorship events, OOH advertising, and digital and social media activations. Both athletes, at 20 and 19 years old, respectively, bring impressive accolades, with Flau’Jae named SEC Freshman of the Year in 2023 and Isaiah honored as the 2023 McDonald’s All-American Game MVP.
These partnerships follow POWERADE’s recent introduction of an all-new formula and packaging in 2023, delivering a great-tasting formula with 50% more electrolytes than the Gatorade Thirst Quencher.
The “rags to riches” tale is a staple of hip-hop, so much so that on Wyclef Jean’s new song “Paper Right,” he’s able to recruit a whole posse cut worth of rappers to help him detail how to stack enough cash to retire a couple of generations. Interestingly, in addition to employing Pusha T, one of rap’s most notable street prophets-turned-business moguls, he also lends the spotlight to a trio of rising stars in Lola Brooke, Flau’jae Johnson, and singer Capella Grety.
The song is part of an outreach program by The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) called Retire Inequality. According to the campaign’s website, its mission is to provide savings and investment information to Black Americans, who are likely to not have enough savings to retire. To that end, “Paper Right” references generational wealth multiple times, as well as investing advice, like real estate and side hustling; funnily enough, it might be the first time we’ve ever heard Pusha repudiate the drug game mentality that he’s espoused on basically every other thing he’s recorded (even those odd Arby’s jingles he did a couple of years ago).
All of those artists — save Flau’jae, who’s in the middle of LSU’s basketball season — appeared on The Tonight Show to perform the track last night. Check it out below.
LSU sophomore Flau’jae Johnson took some time away from Baton Rouge to perform at a Rod Wave concert in Atlanta. Johnson performed a few of the tracks she has released in recent years, including her best-known hit, “Big 4”. Previously, Johnson has performed at a LeBron James party as well as LSU’s national championship celebration back in April.
However, her music has also proven controversial at times. On May 9, LSU guard and rapper Flau’jae Johnson dropped a remix of Latto’s “Put It On Da Floor”. In putting her own style on the track, Johnson included the lyric “In this 911, blowing smoke like them towers.” The song quickly went viral for all the wrong reasons, with right-wing outlets such as Fox and Outkick very angry at Johnson for “mocking” 9/11. However, Johnson later issued an apology. “I just want to come on here and let ya’ll know by no means would I ever intentionally try to disrespect or offend anyone. My whole goal in music is to push positivity and spread love. So, in no way shape or form would I ever intentionally try to disrespect or offend anyone,” Johnson wrote on Instagram.
On the court, Johnson is showing why she was named SEC Freshman of the Year last season. While she is no longer an instant starter, she is playing more minutes and has seen an increase in almost every statistical category. While she’s only played less than a third of the games she did last year, it’s clear that Johnson has taken all of the right lessons from Kim Mulkey’s coaching.
LSU are 10-1, having gone undefeated since the shock loss in their season opener. However, much like last year, the Tigers have faced criticism for their non-conference schedule. An 89-point margin of victory of McNeese highlights that LSU isn’t playing the highest quality opponents. They’ve played just two ranked matchups in Colorado and Virginia Tech. By comparison, the SEC-leading South Carolina, who is also No. 1 in the country, has played four top-25 opponents already this season.
The parents of Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson have begun beefing online as drama grips the LSU women’s basketball team. “You definitely know about grammar errors when your daughter got a 2.0 or less GPA,” one post aimed at Reese read. Furthermore, graduated Tigers Alexis Morris and Jasmine Carson also weighed in on the current situation. Morris said that the team better not be “falling apart without her” after they “switched up to gang up on me”. Meanwhile, Carson warned “y’all better hope I don’t say nothing.”
Reese was completely absent from LSU’s road trip to Southeastern Louisiana, with head coach Kim Mulkey refusing to answer questions on where Reese was. The Tigers won out 73-50 over the Lions, who are ranked #168 in the nation according to the latest NET rankings. Johnson, playing off the bench, had a double-double with a game-high 17 points.
LSU appeared to have buckled under the pressure that comes with being the defending national champions. They lost their season-opener to then #20 Colorado, one of the few truly competitive games on their non-conference slate. While they have quickly improved to 4-1 with wins over Queens, Mississippi Valley State, Kent State, and Southeastern Louisiana, all is not well within the Tigers camp.
However, head coach Kim Mulkey benched Reese for the entire second half against Kent State, calling it a “coach’s decision”. Then, just days later, Reese was off the team sheet entirely. As mentioned, Mulkey refused to say much about why Reese was away from the team. “Angel was not in uniform. Angel is a part of this basketball team, and we hope to see her sooner than later,” Mulkey said matter-of-factly. However, Reese wasn’t just out of uniform. It appeared that she had not made the 50-mile journey to Hammond at all. The Tigers return home on Monday to face Texas Southern. The game is the start of a six-game homestand that includes #9 Virginia Tech. It remains to be seen when Reese will return to the lineup.
Angel Reese and several of her LSU teammates recent namely their all-time basketball starting lineups. Reese kicked things off with a twist. “I’m starting strong with Lisa Leslie,” Reese said before filling her lineup out with Cheryl Miller, Kobe, Shaq, and most surprisingly, LSU head coach Kim Mulkey. Mulkey was a national championship winning point guard with LA Tech in the early 80s. Sophomore Flau’jae Johnson also named Mulkey to her lineup and also agreed with Reese on Shaq. However, Johnson also picked Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson.
Meanwhile, new transfer Hailey Van Lith went in a different direction entirely. After naming Kobe and the aforementioned Lisa Leslie, Van Lith also selected Becky Hammon, Kevin Garnett, and Micheal Jordan. “That’s a tough starting five, right there. Mad tough,” Van Lith said of her team. The question came about as apart of an interview the players did ahead of the Hall of Fame Series, the traditional marquee event to open the college basketball season. The basketball season kicks off next week.
Meanwhile, oddsmakers have revealed the Tigers as their title favorites ahead of the start of the women’s basketball season next week. The Tigers are +230 favorites on FanDuel and +300 favorites on DraftKings. Just behind LSU is UConn at +500 and +600 on the two sites respectively. Furthermore, LSU and UConn are #1 and #2 in both the AP‘s preseason poll and ESPN‘s preseason bracketology. LSU opens the season against #20 Colorado in Las Vegas next week.
The Tigers are also seeking to become the first team since the UConn four-peat to repeat as National Champions. To maximize their chances, head coach Kim Mulkey built a superteam from recruiting and the portal. She has two top-7 freshmen and added Aneesah Morrow from DePaul and Hailey van Lith from Louisville. These additions are a huge reason for the preseason hype surrounding LSU. However, experts have also noted that if the lineup fails to be cohesive, it may spell disaster for the team.
Flau’jae Johnson is one of the hottest names in women’s basketball. The LSU freshman played an important role in the team’s first-ever National Championship. However, Johnson is also a rapper. Performing under the stage name Flau’jae, Johnson previously appeared on The Rap Game and America’s Got Talent. However, she has since signed with Roc Nation and is prepping collabs with a number of artists. But she also shares a deep connection with Boosie Badazz.
Boosie Explains Being There For Johnson After Father’s Murder
“I was cool with her dad,” Boosie explained, referring to rapper Camoflauge. “All through her life, I’ve been there. She calls me uncle. She been playing in my backyard since she was little.” Furthermore, the rapper couldn’t help but smile as Vlad asked him how it felt to see Johnson win a National Championship earlier this year. “It made me proud. It got me emotional, it made me proud. I saw it. I saw it coming. When she was about going to LSU…I’m just happy for her. I know her daddy looking down on her, happy for her.”
Camoflague, born Jason Johnson, was a close friend of Boosie’s. However, he was tragically killed in Savannah, Georgia at the age of 21 in 2003. Flau’jae was born a little under six months later. In her own interview on VladTV, she spoke about everything that Boosie had done to help her over the years. “He showed love, even helping me get on The Rap Game, tried to help me navigate as much as he could. He got a lotta kids so for him to even reach his hand out, to take the time to do that, that was a lotta love.”
Flau’jae Johnson recently opened up to Uproxx about winning LSU’s first NCAA Division I basketball championship this April and celebrating that win while her song, “Big 4,” filled the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
“The fact that I’m being recognized for my music as well as my basketball at the highest level, that was a breathtaking moment for me,” Johnson said. “Both of my lives crossed over how I wanted it to. It was an amazing feeling. It felt like a movie.”
Johnson joined The Baller Alert Show for its June 10 episode and was asked around the 28-minute mark why she wasn’t in the video alongside Reese.
“Angel, she loves doing videos,” Johnson said. “She’s a cute girl. You know what I’m saying? Like, that’s her thing. … So, Latto, she hit me about it, like, the day before.”
Johnson explained that she told Latto she was in Los Angeles but could still “make it happen,” leading to confusion when the video came out without her involvement.
“Her people never hit my people,” she continued. “But I had seen — she had asked Angel like a week before. You feel me? I was like, OK, maybe she really ain’t want me in the video, for real, but she had to ask me because we had kind of a relationship before, and she put Angel in it. But I was like, I didn’t really care ’cause Angel was in it, and that was a big moment for women’s basketball.”
Still, Johnson can’t help but wonder “why wouldn’t you put me in it? It just makes sense.”
Watch Johnson’s full The Baller Alert Show episode above.
NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Flau’jae Johnson Asks Why She Wasn’t In The “Put It On Da Floor Again” Video
Speaking on The Baller Alert Show, Johnson was asked about why she wasn’t in the video for “Put It On Da Floor Again”. “Latto she hit me about it, the day before,” Johnson explained. “She was like ‘I want you to be in the video.’ I was like, ‘I’m in LA right now. But yeah we can make it happen.’ But we didn’t make it happen. “Her people never hit my people. I seen she had asked Angel like a week before. And I was like, ‘okay, maybe she ain’t really want me in the video for real. But she had to ask, ’cause we kind of had a relationship before and she put Angel in it. I didn’t really care because Angel was in it and that was a big moment for women’s basketball, and at the same time, why wouldn’t you put me in it?”
She continued. “It just makes sense. I did the remix, it went viral!.” Johnson did indeed remix the song. Her freestyle remix garnered a fair amount of controversy after right-wing media outlets expressed outrage that Johnson referenced 9/11 during her verse. Johnson subsequently apologized for that incident. However, Johnson doesn’t appear too upset, just a little sad that she didn’t get the chance to cameo. Maybe she can get that J.Cole collab she has previously called “her dream” instead. Follow all the latest sports and music news here at HotNewHipHop.
“I just had chills going through my body,” NCAA National Champion and Roc Nation artist Flau’Jae Johnson said of the moment Louisiana State University won as her song “Big 4” blasted throughout the American Airlines Center with confetti dancing in the air while The Tigers celebrated a historic win.
When the LSU women’s basketball team devastated No. 2 Iowa in the National Championship 102-85 in April, it marked the first time the women’s basketball team ever won a national championship.
Are you gonna rap or be a athlete if I’m still doing both why you asking meee ??!!4⃣4⃣4⃣4⃣pic.twitter.com/YuU57AA4mi
“The fact that I’m being recognized for my music as well as my basketball at the highest level, that was a breathtaking moment for me. Both of my lives crossed over how I wanted it to. It was an amazing feeling,” the young guard told Uproxx over the phone. “It felt like a movie.”
The song and moment magically aligned perfectly. “August of last year I recorded that,” she told me about the making of “Big 4.”
“We was in weight training with my team and we always played music on the aux, and my teammate LaDazhia [Williams] played this song and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I was like, “I’mma use this and I’mma rap on it.’ It just came out the way it came. I kept hearing the beat in my head and I didn’t know what it was. Once I figured out what it was, I asked LaDazhia, I’m like, what song is that? I remixed and then I made it my song.”
The 19-year-old Savannah, Georgia student-rapper-athlete credits consistency for her ability to tap into both talents successfully like a real-life Hannah Montana. “I’m a basketball player doing something that’s never been done before,” she told me.
Daughter of Jason “Camoflauge” Johnson, known for his song “Cut Friends” who passed away before she was born in 2003, Flau’jae is merely carrying the torch. Her drive and passion for basketball and music are unmatched.
“I’ve been playing basketball ever since I could walk. So, I’ve been hooping for a long time,” she said of her beginnings. “At a young age I just loved music. At six or seven, I started freestyling in the car and rapping for my mom. I always had an ear for music. Even when I didn’t really know what I was saying.”
On the court, she wears the number 4, which she revealed holds sentimental meaning. “[James] Murdock, who was a huge basketball player in Savannah, got killed and he used to hang around my father. He’s real known in Savannah and he’s hardest player to wear four,” she explained. “So, I was always four and I wear four for Murdock. Rest in peace to him.”
With so much going on in the city of Savannah, Flau’jae’s focus is something like Obi-Wan Kenobi’s — it cannot be broken.
Her basketball and rap interests are fueled by the same thing: “To want to be great,” the rising talent shared. “Wanting to be good at my craft, wanting to excel, wanting to be the best version of myself. That’s the best part. That’s what fuels everything I do. Just wanting to be the best.”
Being a college student-athlete as a freshman at a school like Louisiana State University on the women’s basketball team comes with all kinds of pressure. Pressure from not only the school but from LSU fans across the globe expecting their favorite team to show up with nothing less than a win. I had to ask her the secret to maintaining a smooth state of flow between basketball practices and going to the studio.
“Just being consistent,” she answered. “When I feel like I’m pushing on everything and I’m doing it the right way and I got a schedule lined up, that’s the best way for me to be successful in both areas. Being consistent in that makes everything on track. Me being able to create music when I’m feeling the best way is when I’m being consistent with basketball, music, working out, going to the studio. And, I’m actually doing my big one.”
Flau’jae’s “Big 4” isn’t the only song that’s catching a lot of attention, she also recently remixed Hot 100 hit “Put It On Da Floor” by fellow The Rap Game alum Latto into her own freestyle titled “Clickbait.”
“She told me that she really liked the remix that I did,” she revealed. “She wanted me to get in the video. Hopefully we can make that happen. Latto shows big love.”
Meanwhile, the video for Latto’s official “Put It On Da Floor Again” remix with Cardi B happens to feature a cameo from her teammate Angel Reese thanks to Cardi’s line “I been ballin’ so damn hard, could’ve went to LSU.” She and Reese also made a special appearance in NLE Choppa’s heartwarming music video for “Champions.”
On top of that, Flau’jae’s business-savvy partnership with Roc Nation is evidence that her formula is working.
“I own everything. I own my masters. I got creative control. That’s what I wanted. A deal where I could be in control and be able to write the narrative of how I wanted to, for my story. They understood the vision of me. A lot of people didn’t understand the vision of me being a rapper and an artist and being in college. Roc Nation understood it. They really seen what I could be in the future. I appreciate them.”
Ahead of Flau’jae’s second year as an LSU basketball player, she plans to unleash a collection of songs for an official EP.
“I got my project Basketball World dropping this summer, ‘Big 4 Anthem,’ my song with 2Rare going to drop after that. The music I got out right now, we got ‘Clickbait’ going stupid right now. I’m super excited, man. Stay tapped in.”
On May 9, LSU guard and rapper Flau’jae Johnson dropped a remix of Latto’s “Put It On Da Floor”. In putting her own style on the track, Johnson included the lyric “In this 911, blowing smoke like them towers.” The song quickly went viral for all the wrong reasons, with right-wing outlets such as Fox and Outkick very angry at Johnson for “mocking” 9/11.
The song was quickly removed from YouTube and social media. LSU put out an official statement apologizing on behalf of Johnson. “We spoke with Flau’jae this evening, and while she never intended to offend or upset anyone with her lyrics, she expressed sincere remorse for any possibility of a misunderstanding and immediately took the video down,” the statement read in part. However, the apology came from LSU and not Johnson herself.
Johnson Adds Own Apology For 9/11 Reference
DALLAS, TEXAS – APRIL 02: Flau’jae Johnson #4 of the LSU Lady Tigers cuts down a piece of the net after defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes 102-85 during the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament championship game at American Airlines Center on April 02, 2023 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
While Johnson did not immediately respond to the controversy, she has now come out with a statement of her own. “I just want to come on here and let ya’ll know by no means would I ever intentionally try to disrespect or offend anyone,” Johnson said on Instagram. “My whole goal in music is to push positivity and spread love. So, in no way shape or form would I ever intentionally try to disrespect or offend anyone.” Despite the claims from the right-wing media, it’s clear that the 19-year-old performer did not maliciously include the include.
Johnson, who performs under the stage name Flau’jae, has seen her work thrust into a bright spotlight after LSU claimed their first-ever women’s basketball National Championship in April. She teased a collab with Lil Wayne soon after cutting the nets down. Later on in the month, she also revealed she was working on a track with DJ Khaled. LSU has stood by their SEC freshman of the year and does not intend to further reprimand her for the ill-advised bar.
