LSU officially adds platinum-certified rapper to football roster

LSU’s Tiger Stadium, nicknamed Death Valley, holds over 102,000 fans and is universally regarded as one of the most intimidating atmospheres in all of college football.

The Tigers’ newest wide receiver shouldn’t be fazed at all.

LSU opened spring practice this week, and Nau’jour Grainger is officially listed on the Tigers’ roster as a freshman wide receiver. Grainger is best known as Toosii, a 26-year-old rapper/singer with several gold- and platinum-certified hits.

Toosii’s biggest smash was “Favorite Song,” which went five-times platinum and charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023. The music video has over 352 million views on YouTube.

Last August, Toosii posted a video showing him running routes and wrote, “I’m chasing history. First multi-platinum recording artist to go back to school and play Division I football. Next year, I’m gonna be on somebody’s team[,] mark my words.”

Last December, Toosii announced he had committed to play football at Syracuse.

“For every kid who ever had a dream, make it reality,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “God’s will is the way, and no one can stop it, not even the devil. I wanna thank my lord and savior Jesus Christ for even giving me the strength to chase what I believed when so many people told me I couldn’t.”

He continued, “Thank you to the people who supported me as well, it never go unnoticed. To be born in Syracuse and move to North Carolina at age 12, and haven’t been back since. When Coach Fran called, I knew it was a sign from God. So with that being said, Cuse, I’m coming home.”

However, in late January, Syracuse head coach Fran Brown Jr. told reporters that, while Syracuse was going to “allow him to walk on,” Toosii was “not gonna come here and play ball. Toosii posted a TikTok disputing Brown’s account of events, but whatever happened, Toosii, as Nau’Jour Grainger, ended up at LSU.