DJ T.O. initially dismissed the controversy but later apologized on social media and was issued a one-game suspension from the university.
The athletic department of the University of South Carolina (USC) issued an apology and suspended their in-arena DJ after a controversy surrounding song choice and the star of LSU’s women’s basketball program, Flau’Jae Johnson. After USC beat LSU 66-56 on Friday evening, the in-arena DJ — DJ T.O. — played the instrumental version of “Cut Friends,” a song recorded by Johnson’s father, rapper Camouflage, who was murdered in 2003, just months before Flau’Jae was born.
When a fan pointed out to DJ T.O. in an Instagram story that “playing camouflage at the end of the game was crazy,” the in-arena DJ responded with “my bad” and a laughing emoji. Flau’Jae saw the post and responded to it (with a screenshot of DJ T.O.’s post) via her X account, saying:
“I’ll take my L on the chin but this just nasty behavior. Nun funny bout that.”
DJ T.O. later apologized via X, saying, “It is never my intent to disrespect anyone or offend anyone when my job is to have fun and make sure other people have a good time.” She pointed out that she had played the song at other games but shouldn’t have played it there.
On Sunday (Jan. 26), the University of South Carolina’s athletic department issued a statement via X about the inappropriate song selection and apologized to LSU and Flau’Jae Johnson and her family, noting that DJ T.O. was suspended for the next women’s home game.
“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, and we apologize to Flau’Jae, her family and LSU.
“As a result of her actions, DJ T.O. will be suspended for the next women’s basketball home game, and we will meet with her to provide further education on our expectations of her in the future.”
Both USC and LSU are nationally ranked programs (2 and 7, respectively) and expected to compete for the women’s college basketball national championship later this year.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
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