Flau'jae pulled up to the Genius studio to unpack the meaning behind her hit “Came Out A Beast.” The bold anthem, featuring Louisiana’s own Lil Wayne, is a standout from the National Champion’s Best of Both Worlds album. On today’s episode of Verified, the multi-talented star opens up about the story behind the iconic collaboration, how she’s honoring her father’s legacy, the origin of “Big 4,” and so much more!
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00:00I remember it like it was yesterday.
00:01He FaceTimed me, and I'm like,
00:03who's this Lil Wayne, like, oh my gosh.
00:05Bruh, this Lil Wayne, bro, I'm like,
00:06oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
00:08I'm like going crazy.
00:09I'm like, y'all, I'm about to grow my hair out.
00:10He called me, he was like, yeah, I just, I did the verse.
00:12Let me know what you think.
00:12Let me know if you're messing with it.
00:14Let me know what y'all think.
00:15He was sitting at the verse, I don't care what it sound like.
00:17I got Lil, you know what I'm saying?
00:18But I go, I listen to it.
00:19He just said my lyrics, like, hold up, hold up.
00:21I said, hold up.
00:23I was geeking.
00:24I was like, bro, he just said my lyrics.
00:25I'm calling my mama.
00:26I'm going crazy.
00:27I'm like, mama, Wayne just hit the track.
00:28Wayne just hit the track.
00:28When I heard him say, big faux flage,
00:31I ain't get through the rest of the verse.
00:33I ain't heard nothing else.
00:34I'm like, Wayne just quoted me in the song, bro.
00:36Like, this the biggest step ever.
00:38Like, I was going crazy.
00:40I was losing it.
00:40That was like a Grammy.
00:41That was like the national championship
00:42won all over for me again.
00:51Desi from EQ sent me a beat in a pack,
00:53and it was like, Dollar Baby.
00:54The first thing I heard was,
00:55don't let the good girls go bad.
00:57And I was like, oh my God, this is hard.
00:59Like, what is this?
01:00Like, it was one of them beats that only played
01:01for like 10 seconds, and I was like, just load it up.
01:03Sue Bird talking to Wayne on ESPN.
01:06Sue Bird was like, yeah, so when you gonna do the song
01:08with Flage?
01:09She basically threw me the alley-oop.
01:10Like, on ESPN, live.
01:12And he was like, yeah, I'ma work with a whoop.
01:13He ended up reaching out for me.
01:15He sent the verse back like a couple weeks later.
01:17He gave me like a classic Wayne verse.
01:24The greatest to me, obviously Wayne, Tupac, Biggie,
01:28Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Queen Latifah.
01:31Really everybody.
01:32Nicki Minaj, she paved the way for me,
01:34was one of my biggest inspirations when I was younger.
01:36I love hip hop.
01:37Like, you know what I'm saying?
01:38So, I went back and studied the greats,
01:40and I feel like that what I did in basketball.
01:41Studied Mike and LeBron and Kobe.
01:49My number one biggest ever.
01:52My number one biggest inspiration was my dad.
01:54My dad was murdered right before I was born,
01:56and he was an artist, you know, solidified in Georgia,
01:59signed a deal, was about to, you know, make his big break,
02:01and then he got killed.
02:02So, that's the whole reason I'm into rap.
02:04He's my number one rapper of all time.
02:06That's the reason.
02:07That's like my biggest inspiration.
02:08Everything that I did in music
02:10was to cement my father's legacy.
02:11Basketball was never really a part of the plans.
02:14Like, I always just said, I'ma just, I'ma rap,
02:16and I'ma continue my father's legacy.
02:17Because I never wanted his name to die.
02:19As I got on the biggest stage of basketball,
02:21my music, his music, his legacy.
02:23It's all about legacy.
02:31The Shaq and Kobe line was a reference to, like,
02:33my time at LSU, playing on that national championship team
02:36with, like, me and Angel, and it was real dominant.
02:38Kobe's one of my favorite players of all time.
02:40Shaq went to LSU, so I just felt like
02:42the reference was definitely a fit.
02:50The Deion line, that was definitely intentional.
02:52Just knowing that he played football and baseball,
02:55and he was just such a prime figure.
02:57I just love seeing Deion be successful,
02:58doing everything he doing with his kids,
03:00leading the way in NIL.
03:01He one of the ones.
03:08She led the leagues in double doubles in college.
03:11She doing it now in the WNBA.
03:12It's crazy.
03:13Still doing it.
03:14I'ma be honest.
03:14I'ma be honest.
03:15I'ma be honest.
03:16I'ma be honest.
03:17I'ma be honest.
03:18I'ma be honest.
03:19I'ma be honest.
03:19It's crazy.
03:20Still transcending.
03:21So that was kind of that whole nod.
03:23You know what I'm saying?
03:24Everybody keep asking me, what does that mean?
03:26That's what it means.
03:26She keep the double-double, I keep the double-entendre.
03:37I'm really a product of what my mama done did.
03:39My mama quit her job to help me chase my dreams.
03:41The return on investment was good,
03:43but, like, in that moment, like, you know,
03:44you never knew what could happen.
03:45I just gave my mama that shout out,
03:47because, you know, she a beast.
03:50My music was, like, a laughingstock.
03:52I remember I used to look at tweets,
03:53and they be like, damn, people, like,
03:55people really be listening to Flau'jae, like,
03:56and they used to be, like, laughing emojis,
03:57laughing emojis, laughing emojis.
03:58And I used to be one of them.
03:59I'm like, what's funny?
04:00But I felt like people didn't want to accept the fact that,
04:03like, dang, she actually good at two things.
04:05I got one from the greatest of all time, arguably.
04:08And he's shouting me out, and he putting me on now.
04:10What, what you gonna say now?
04:12Yeah, I come from a place where you gotta go eat.
04:14If you do it, I do you a product of what my mama done did.
04:16I'ma be honest.
04:17I'ma be honest.
04:18I gotta go eat.
04:19If you do it, I do you a product of me.
04:20I done did it again, and I'm not at my peak.
04:22I come from a place where my mom dad was murdered.
04:25My dad was murdered.
04:27My stepdad dad was murdered.
04:28That's the type of place that I come from.
04:30So I know coming out of Savannah,
04:31like, you gotta be a hustler,
04:32and everybody trying to get they hustle on.
04:34Like, you don't got a choice,
04:35because if you don't, you gonna drown in the water.
04:37You know, it's a blessing to make it out.
04:39So that's why I make it out,
04:40and I always come back and give back, too.
04:48When I recorded the song,
04:49my mama had, like, randomly just sent me,
04:51like, this is what you got in your account.
04:53I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
04:55That's a lot of zero.
04:56I had to put that in the song,
04:57because I was shell-shocked.
04:58Even though I'm a college student,
04:59I do advocate for kids to get their education.
05:01You cannot go to school and still run your checkup.
05:04You just gotta have some hustle.
05:06And I think Lil Wayne understood that, too,
05:07because he was like, I'm a big man.
05:09I ain't got a degree.
05:10Yeah, I ain't got nothin' to prove,
05:11but I do got me somethin' to lose.
05:13I won't stop, man, you got me confused,
05:15because they keepin' my face on the news.
05:16I don't have nothin' to prove to y'all,
05:18but I do got somethin' to lose now.
05:19I'm a role model now.
05:20Like, little kids look up to me.
05:22You know, they pushin' me to push positivity,
05:23and that's what I'm pushin' in my music,
05:25and just, like, individuality of people bein' theyself.
05:27So I know the kind of platform that I have,
05:29and so it's like, I ain't finna do nothin' to mess that up.
05:31I'm squeaky clean.
05:32Yeah, I think, man, I'm the biggest foe in the world.
05:36If you workin' for this and it fall in your lap,
05:37then you really got what you deserve, yeah.
05:39People don't even know, like, you know,
05:41the real story behind Big 4, so I would love to tell it.
05:43My Uncle Murdoch from Savannah, Georgia,
05:45he was, like, a hard basketball player.
05:47He wore number four, and he was murdered,
05:49but he was, like, one of the hardest, like,
05:50winnin' championships for the season.
05:52Like, everybody knew him, and he knew my father,
05:54and things, and they were cold like that.
05:56So it was like, I always wanted
05:57to kinda carry on his legacy, too.
05:59Now, like, Big 4 is somethin' that I kinda took
06:01and made it my own, but it was somethin'
06:02just to represent him.
06:03It's kinda like I'm livin' both of their dreams,
06:05like my dad and my Uncle Murdoch.
06:07So that's where Big 4 come from.
06:08It started on the court in high school,
06:10and it just kinda became my own persona.
06:12Cause I always thought, like, what am I gonna be like?
06:14What's gonna be my alter ego?
06:15Like, you know, Nicki Minaj got, like, Roman,
06:17and you know what I'm sayin'?
06:18Lil Wayne, Lil 2, it's like, what's my thing?
06:19And it just became Big 4, and it's just
06:21somethin' that I embody, and I love it.
06:23And I go to LSU, and I be reppin' it like I'm Joe Burrow.
06:26When I slide into Mozzie, I gotta keep checkin' it,
06:28gotta be thorough.
06:29I love LSU, but LSU love me,
06:31and they support me a thousand percent.
06:33I'm just so proud to be able to represent
06:34those three letters on my chest, for real.
06:36Like, it's a honor for me.
06:37Before that, Joe Burrow was, like, the last person
06:39that really did some legendary stuff at that school.
06:41Like, when you say Joe Burrow, like, that whole weight,
06:43like, that's that man.
06:44He brought the championship to a battin'.
06:46Ain't no more revenues, ain't no more talkin',
06:48and ain't no referrals.
06:49They been takin' my flow, they ain't givin' it back,
06:51gotta get reimbursed.
06:52Got the flow from my father, so,
06:54when I first got into rap music,
06:55all I listened to was, like, 90s R&B and my dad.
06:59Like, that's all I listened to.
07:00You gotta go listen to my dad music,
07:01but the way that he raps is the way that I talk.
07:03I had to learn the crispiness, I had to learn the patterning.
07:06And for me, that's what make rap exciting.
07:08That's what make, I think, make rap the art form.
07:11The way that you can manipulate words
07:12and make it sound good, and it don't even sound
07:14like you missed a beat.
07:17I'm the hardest rapper in it,
07:19lead the game inside of hers.
07:22They hatin' in my own circle.
07:25Gold, yellow, I got my own purple.
07:27That's just how I freestyled it,
07:28and it was just like, they hatin' in my own circle.
07:31Cause I feel like the beat started to drag
07:33and slow down, and I like that.
07:34That's really more of a, less of what I say,
07:36more of how I said it.
07:37I meant gold and yellow, but, like, I got my own swag.
07:40Like, that's my own purple.
07:41Once I kinda said LSU, I'm startin' to think,
07:44like, okay, just LSU, just theme.
07:45That's one of the things that just come,
07:47and you say it, and it's like, oh yeah, that's fine.
07:48Keep that.
07:52That was his song?
07:53Yeah.
07:53Dion made a song called, Must Be the Money?
07:54Yeah.
07:55See, if I ain't got caught up on Gia's saying that,
07:58I knew that, I would've lied.
08:01I would've been like, yeah, I did that on purpose,
08:03but no, I can't take credit for that.
08:04That's crazy.
08:05That be happenin' a lot, though.
08:06Like, I be doin' double entendres on accident.
08:09People be puttin' together in the comments.
08:10I be like, oh, I ain't even knew that,
08:11but I'm still at that.
08:12This man keep breakin' down my lyrics better than me.
08:15Ha!