Originally posted Tuesday, June 5, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Flau'Jae Monae Johnson, whose rapper father Camouflage died before she was born 14 years ago, cruised into the next round on "America's Got Talent" last week by
honoring her dad on reality TV’s largest stage.
“If he would have put that gun down, he would have been here right now,” she rapped, later adding, “Everybody put your guns down.”
The judges and audience gave the Savannah native and Kennesaw resident a big standing ovation.
"You are so on point and so honest," Mel B said. "And you're only 14! I love you!"
"I am so happy there is a 14-year-old girl writing a song like that because so many kids are listening," Heidi Klum said.
Simon Cowell: "I don't know a lot about rap music, I do know talent and right now I believe we are witnessing the start of somebody's career big time. I genuinely do. This has been my favorite audition by a clear margin."
Simon asked for her mom to show up on stage while they gave her four ebullient yesses. He then went backstage and hugged her. "What you did there was so important and fantastic," he said. "I'm thrilled for you." (When does Simon ever do that?)
“I want to send out a message that rap can be positive,” said Flau’Jae in an interview last week. “There’s a lot of violence and hate. Rap doesn’t have to be about that. I hope I can help people and their situations.”
“AGT” offered up the video online before the season debut of the show and she said she received immediate response from both kids and adults who have also lost their parents to violence.
"My father is an inspiration for everything I do," she said. "Every day I try to make my dad proud."
And she has plenty of material down the road. She said she has written more than 100 songs just in the past couple of months alone.
She appeared on Lifetime's music competition show "The Rap Game" two years ago and though she didn't win, she credits producer Jermaine Dupri for helping her hone her craft. "I'm a better lyricist, a better rapper," she said. "It helped mold me into the person I am now."
“America’s Got Talent” airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
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Channel 2 Action News is airing a prime-time special on Tuesday, June 5 at 10 p.m. focused on the network’s recent investigative reports.
Richard Belcher delves into spending at Georgia Tech to improve morale funded by taxpayers. Jim Strickland looks into a Gwinnett County cosmetic surgeon who made music videos while operating on patients but didn't do a great job actually operating on many patients. And Sophia Choi looks into a person who turned a drone into a peeping tom device. Justin Farmer and Jovita Moore host.
Channel 2 and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution are both part of Cox Media Group.
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Credit: Courtesy of Netfilx
Credit: Courtesy of Netfilx
The second season of Netflix’s ‘Queer Eye” is set to be released for subscribers June 15.
It was shot concurrent last year with season one around metro Atlanta.
The first season, which debuted earlier this year, was well received with the new cast of Tan France, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, Jonathan Van Ness and Antoni Porowski.
The cast teased to EW that there will be more variety for the second season including episodes featuring a woman, a transgender and a teenager.
I recognized one of the "heroes," as they call the subjects of the show: Ted Terry, mayor of Clarkson.
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Fox 5 will be airing eight episodes of a new show it’s dubbing “The Georgia Scene” which will feature TV and film productions in Atlanta such as “Black Panther” and “The Resident.”
"Good Day Atlanta's" Alyse Eady, Sharon Lawson and Paul Milliken will host. It will debut Friday, July 20th at 12:30 p.m. and air weekly through September.
