FLAU’JAE JOHNSON KNOWS it doesn’t make sense. In theory, yes, it should be easier to find things when her room is clean. But logic doesn’t apply here. Not today. Not after the cleaners came through and rearranged the delicate ecosystem she calls her organized chaos, where hoodies overflow from drawers and every cable strewn across her desk has purpose.
This is how she ends up rummaging around for her computer mouse. Desk? Nope. Nightstand? Nothing. Finally, she spots it on the top shelf of the bookcase near her bed.
«Like, why would they put it all the way up here?» she asks, shaking her head.
But Johnson doesn’t linger. She has work to do.
She drops into her chair — the one marked with the 2023 Final Four logo — and fires up her desktop, the screen crowded with audio files. She pulls out her mic and slips on her headset, back in her element — even if the room around her isn’t.
This is Johnson’s home studio. It’s where she makes the music that has helped place her in a national spotlight and set her apart from her peers. It’s where she recorded her latest EP, and what got her on the ESPY Awards stage with Lil Wayne in July and at the BET Awards in October.
It’s a haven for her, a corner where she can focus on one of the many hyphenates of her preferred career path: rapper-basketball star-businesswoman. She spends nearly every free moment here, though this year, those moments are few and fleeting.
This season, Johnson is tucking away that superstar persona and focusing on being one of the best college basketball players in the nation. Johnson and LSU (8-0) are off to a perfect start as the Tigers have scored at least 100 points in an NCAA-record eight consecutive games, albeit against a weak nonconference schedule. A month into her senior year at LSU, it’s her last chance to give this team all she has left.
It’s an easy transition to make, Johnson says. While it’s all about her on stage, it’s about her entire team on the court. She remains dedicated to the work behind the scenes, and she will do whatever it takes to be the best at whatever she sets out to do.
«You’ve got to keep the main thing the main thing,» she says. «I make my life revolve around basketball.»
It’s part of the deal she made with LSU coach Kim Mulkey. «She said in the offseason, you can go rap, go to Germany, I don’t care what you do. But in season, you gotta focus on basketball.»
Johnson wants to spend her final months in Baton Rouge working toward her second NCAA title. She helped LSU win its first national championship in women’s basketball as a freshman in 2023. Now, she wants to test her leadership skills. She wants to do everything she can to prove she deserves to be a lottery pick in the WNBA draft.
She wants to prove basketball is — and always will be — the No. 1 priority.
«I get to live like Hannah Montana,» Johnson says. «Best of both worlds.»
IT’S MARCH 2025, and Johnson has a decision to make. The season has barely ended, only a few days removed from LSU’s Elite Eight loss to UCLA, and the emotions are still raw. The 5-foot-10 guard and her mother, Kia Brooks, begin talking through what’s next, turning over every scenario they can think of.
The WNBA draft is two weeks away. Johnson can declare and step into the best women’s basketball league in the world. Or she can return to LSU for her senior year and take another run at something she isn’t sure she is ready to leave behind.
«Don’t make [this] decision when you’re emotional,» Brooks remembers telling her 22-year-old. She wasn’t saying it as Johnson’s mom, but as her manager, the person who has watched Johnson make hundreds of business decisions. But this one was different. This one could change the trajectory of the rest of Johnson’s life.
The benefits of the WNBA were plenty. The professional platform. The endorsements. The chance to grow her game against the top talent in the world. But there was another feeling Johnson couldn’t ignore — something that kept pressing at her as she weighed her options.
Mulkey gave Johnson and Brooks space to work through it. Even from afar, the coach had a sense of where the conversation might land.
«I never worried about it,» Mulkey told ESPN. «I knew the quality of person and family that I signed, and she wanted that college degree. And she’s not going to leave somewhere where she’s got unfinished business.»
«I didn’t want to go out on a loss when I didn’t have to,» Johnson said. «If I have another year, why not try to go out as a champion? I owe it to LSU. I owe it to Baton Rouge. A lot of players don’t stay four years anymore. I’m loyal to the soil.»
She had every reason to feel ready for the next level. She started all 36 regular-season games, averaging 11.0 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists and winning SEC Freshman of the Year during the 2022-23 NCAA title run. After two more Elite Eight appearances, she could have walked away content after her junior season.
«Her mindset is, ‘I’m going to get better,'» Mulkey said. «Anything scouts question, she wants to show she can do … her work ethic is unbelievable.»
Over the past three seasons, Johnson has become the steadying presence on a roster that has turned over constantly. Teammates graduated, left for the WNBA or transferred, while new stars arrived. Through all of it, Johnson has remained the program’s anchor and the last tie to the championship team.
«No matter who transferred, no matter who came in, no matter who left, I was always [me],» Johnson said. «I think that’s what just made me so good. I’m always able to adapt.»
Leaving LSU never felt like a real option.
«That don’t even sound right. I’m a Tiger ‘til I die,» she said.
«She doesn’t think the grass is greener somewhere else, even on her bad days, even when she’s aggravated at Coach,» Mulkey said. «She understands you just don’t bail out.»
ESPN’s latest mock draft). She also wants a No. 1 hit. She wants her albums to go platinum.
She envisions a building with her name on it in New York City, where she can employ hundreds of people, giving them a stable job and income. Clothing lines. Shoe deals. Beauty products. She wants to do it all.
But more than any of the tangible accomplishments she wants to achieve, her biggest dream is to have an impact that she doesn’t even directly know about.
«I always tell people, success for me is like changing people’s lives that I’ll never meet,» Johnson said. «I hope that my reach is that big. I hope my impact is that big, that I really change lives and inspire people that I probably never get to see. That’s going to be my pinnacle of success.»
The aspirations are bold, just like her personality and the way she plays. For some, such success over multiple industries might sound unrealistic, but it’s the same level of organized chaos that Johnson has not only lived in, but thrived in.
«I don’t want it to go to her head,» Starkey said, a sly grin spreading across his face, «But they’re going to make a movie about her one day. I am sure about that.»
