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'AGT' Rapper Flau'jae, 14, Says She Was 'Stunned' By XXXTentacion's Death (Exclusive)

'AGT' Rapper Flau'jae, 14, Says She Was 'Stunned' By XXXTentacion's Death (Exclusive)
Credit: cbs

Flau'jae is still processing XXXTentacion's death

ET's Denny Directo sat down with the 14-year-old America's Got Talentrapper on Tuesday, when she admitted she was "stunned" by the death of  XXXTentacion. The 20-year-old rapper was killed after a gunman reportedly ran up to his vehicle in Deerfield, Florida, on Monday, and opened fire. On Thursday, the Broward County Sheriff's Office announced that they've arrested a suspect in the murder. 

"That hit me," Flau'jae confessed. "I was like, 'Are you serious? Is this real?'" 

Gun violence is an especially important topic to the AGT standout, whose own father, Jason Johnson, a rapper also known as Camouflage, was killed shortly after she was born in 2003. He was just 21 years old. Flau'jae made a big impact with her AGT performance of her original song, "Guns Down" -- a phrase she also used while paying tribute to XXX on Instagram. 

"I feel like if we spread the message, people will start to understand to just put the guns down," she explained. "I just hope people, they understand that you can handle situations differently. You don't have to end a situation with killing people because people are dying left and right. And to have witnessed that in my life that my dad died and he was shot and he was murdered. That still affects me when I need a father figure in my life."

"It's kind of scary -- school shootings, shootings in churches, it gets really scary at a point where it's like, 'Oh my god. What's going on?'" she added. 

The teenager, who started rapping to continue her father's legacy, said "Guns Down" is a tribute to her father. "I'm doing this for you. This is going to bring us up. I just felt like I had to perform this song," she shared. 

Since her audition, which earned high praise from judge Simon Cowell, Flau'jae said life has changed "like crazy." 

"To get that from Simon, who breaks huge artists, that was like confirmation [that] this is what I'm supposed to be doing. This is what I was born to do and that the world can really hear a 14-year-old girl and really understand the message of what I was talking about which was gun violence," she expressed. 

"I get a lot of Instagram DMs. They're like, 'You're song really inspired me.' A lot of people there they're inboxing me, 'My dad died too. Not the same way but it still affects me. When I listen to your song it helps me,'" she revealed. "Just to know I'm inspiring people and making them feel better through one song it makes you feel really good."

America's Got Talent airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. 

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