South Carolina‘s athletic department has issued an apology to Flau’jae Johnson, her family and LSU after the Gamecocks’ in-arena DJ played a song by the late father of the Tigers’ star guard after South Carolina’s 66-56 victory against LSU last Friday.
The university, which called the song selection “inappropriate,” said it has suspended the DJ, who goes by the stage name DJ T.O., for the team’s next home game and that it will meet with her to “provide further education on our expectations for her in the future.”
“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.”
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After the No. 2 Gamecocks knocked off the No. 5 Tigers in a highly anticipated matchup between two of the country’s top women’s basketball teams, DJ T.O. played the instrumental to “Cut Friends,” a song by Johnson’s father, Jason, a Savannah, Georgia-based rapper who went by the stage name “Camoflauge.”
Jason Johnson was shot and killed in May 2003, six months before Flau’jae Johnson was born.
Flau’Jae…