Piet Levy / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
It looked like Syracuse was going to have a double-platinum rapper on its roster this season after Toosii supposedly accepted a scholarship offer from the Orange. That did not end up being the case after a divorce he blamed on head coach Fran Brown, but he may have upgraded after landing another opportunity with a school in college football’s most prestigious conference.
There are a number of rappers who played college sports before turning their attention to that pastime. LiAngelo Ball was best known as a former basketball player at UCLA before he dropped “Tweaker,” Wale and Freddie Gibbs fairly short-lived college football careers, and 2 Chainz nodded to his time hooping at Alabama State with the album titled Rap or Go to the League.
I can’t think of any notable names who’ve decided to pursue a career as a student-athlete after experiencing some success in the hip-hop industry, but that’s the route Toosii announced he was planning on taking last year after deciding to resurrect the football career he abandoned after high school.
He was initially slated to join forces with Syracuse, and while that union fell apart less than two months after it came together, he’s found a new home at another school that’s gearing up for its first season after landing one of the biggest names in the most recent coaching cycle.
Rapper Toosii has officially been added to LSU’s football roster ahead of the 2026 season
Toosii was born Nau’Jour Grainger in the city of Syracuse in 2000, but he moved down to Raleigh, North Carolina as a teenager and managed to hold his own as a wide receiver at Rolesville High School.
Football took a backseat to the music career he started to pursue in the second half of the 2010s. He landed a record deal in 2019, and the following year, he ended up with a certified hit in the form of “Favorite Song,” which peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually hit double-platinum status.
He continued to pump out music, but last summer, he announced he was taking a hiatus to focus on a new pursuit: becoming a college football player.
In December, Toosii revealed he’d committed to play at Syracuse, but that plan fell apart toward the end of January after he accused Fran Brown of rescinding the scholarship he said he was initially offered.
He’d also generated some interest from Sacramento State, but based on the page that appeared on LSU’s website this week, he will be heading down south and joining the Tigers as a 25-year-old freshman during Lane Kiffin’s first year at the helm in Baton Rouge.
On Thursday, he confirmed that development in an Instagram post that showed him practicing with the team.
He isn’t expected to be a major impact player, but it will still be a cool story to keep an eye on.