Jaden Flanigan is a junior sports management major from Jonesboro. He works for the Multicultural Center, is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the Black Student Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 

However, Flanigan is also a rapper, rapping under the name J. Flan. He said he’s rapped his whole life, but started doing it more seriously a year ago.

“I was a part of the Arkansas State football team. I was a student coach and I wanted to coach college football,” Flanigan said. “I’ve worked for them for about three years. But I had started to lose the love for the game and I realized what I truly wanted to do is pursue music.”

Rapping runs in Flanigan’s family. His father, Jeff Flanigan, who rapped under the name “Giovanni,” was nominated for three Grammys in 2008. His uncle also worked as a sound engineer, so Flanigan was often in the studio late at night with them.

“We were there at like 3-4 a.m. I’m there as a kid just staying up watching the process of the song, watching (my dad) grind,” Flanigan said. “I grew that passion for being in the studio. It’s like a getaway place.”

Flanigan said he was his dad’s biggest fan, always asking him to play his music. 

“It’s just kind of our bond, something we can always relate to. (One time) he brought me on stage and he gave me the mic and I was just mumbling words, but I felt like I was rapping,” Flanigan said. 

Flanigan’s first show was at an Alpha Phi Alpha event. The event needed an intermission and said he would do it. This was around the same time Flanigan was “writing for real.”

“I killed it,” Flanigan said. “That summer, I just grinded and I dropped the album.”

On Sept. 30, 2022, Flanigan released his debut album titled “The Show,” which has 10 songs. He said the title was inspired by the baseball video game series “MLB: The Show,” because the album was his “rookie debut,” with the album cover mirroring the game’s cover art. 

“When you listen to it, it’s gonna be very versatile. It’s gonna go from high paced to low paced, talking about real topics. I’m really just trying to be everywhere, just so everybody can relate,” Flanigan said.

He added that he raps about real life and pulls from his personal experiences.

“Most rappers these days talk about things that I don’t really affiliate with. Not everyone is going to be able to relate to being in the dope game or guns. I’m not rich, I’m not famous, so I give people things to relate to,” Flanigan said.

Since dropping his album and performing at the Alpha Phi Alpha event, Flanigan has traveled across the country to rap in various shows.

His first rap competition was in St. Louis, where he won second place. Later, he traveled to Memphis for Coast 2 Coast, a rapper showcase, where he won first place. 

Competitions and performances have also taken him to Little Rock and Atlanta. This past weekend, he traveled to Dayton, Ohio to perform the opening act at the Memphis Takeover, an event where rappers KCarbon and Gloss Up performed.

“They were so blown away by my music,” Flanigan said. “They said ‘we got to get you down here.’ Gloss Up is part of a label called Quality Control, or QC for short. I’m really trying to get in with them.”

Flanigan added that he is working on making music with other artists from QC, including a collaboration with Arkansas rapper Ed Dolo.

In November, Flaningan will be traveling to Miami to perform and compete for $50,000.

Flanigan has still been working on writing music. He has released two singles “Bounce” and “Disrespectfully” and will soon drop two extended plays, or EPs.

The first EP, titled “Strictly for the Ladies”, will be released in March. Flanigan said it was for “girls to relate to (his) music.” The other will be released in April and is called “Strictly for the Campus”, which he said will be like a theme song for Arkansas State University. 

In between being a student, rapping and writing music, Flanigan has also done music videos for some of his songs, including “Disrespectfully” and his freestyle of “God Did.” His freestyle, which he called “Flan Did,” was shot in the auditorium and at the clubhouse in Collegiate Park. 

Flanigan said for anyone that wants to get into rapping, they need to prepare to have lows.

“Definitely stay consistent,” Flanigan said. “Find friends that will give you real constructive criticism. Stay away from yes-men because they’re only going to get you so far.”

Some of Flanigan’s favorite songs of his include “Semi Freeze,” which is about police brutality, his freestyle of “God Did,” an upcoming song called “Let You Go,” which talks about letting a relationship go and “All I Need,” a song he made with his dad. 

“When we brought Annie Camp Junior High School here to tour the school, I performed for them in the auditorium at the end and I performed “All I Need,” Flanigan said. “(My dad) influenced me to be a rapper, so that was really meaningful.”

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