South Carolina’s athletic department apologizes to LSU women’s basketball star Flau’jae Johnson and her family after the Gamecocks’ arena DJ played a song by her late father during South Carolina’s win against LSU on Friday.
In a statement, South Carolina described the song choice as “inappropriate” and revealed the DJ, who is known as DJ T.O., has been suspended for the Gamecocks’ next home game.
“Her actions were understandably upsetting to Flau’Jae Johnson and her family and disrespectful to the LSU program and fans,” South Carolina said in a statement. “Conference rivalries and passionate fan bases should only serve to enhance sports, not be used to target individual players personally. We regret that it came to that in our venue after a game that saw both teams capture the level of national attention that women’s basketball has earned.”
No. 2 South Carolina defeated No. 5 LSU in one of the most anticipated matchups of the regular season. After the game went final, DJ T.O. played an instrumental version of “Cut Friends,” which was a song by Johnson’s father, Jason, who was a rapper known by the name “Camoflauge” in the early 2000s.
South Carolina hands LSU first loss: Gamecocks’ defense stifles Tigers in 2024 SEC championship game rematch
Isabel Gonzalez
Jason Johnson was shot and killed back in May 2003, which was six months before Flau’Jae Johnson was born.
Flau’Jae Johnson took to social media to weigh in on the situation, and her post included a screenshot of an Instagram story from DJ T.O. where she posted a caption “my bad” regarding the song choice.
“I’ll take my L on the chin, but this just nasty behavior,” Johnson wrote. “Nun funny bout that.”
After Johnson called out DJ T.O., she did apologize for playing the song and stated it was “never my intent to disrespect anyone or offend anyone.”
Johnson finished Friday’s game with 13 points on 6-of-18 shooting, while also tallying four rebounds and a pair of assists. LSU ended up shooting just 29.9% as a team in the loss.
Johnson was an All-SEC Second Team selection for her performance during the 2023-24 season.