Athlete, Rapper, Student: Seth Johnson does it all
A major part of making music is the listening aspect of it. Freshman rapper, varsity football player and track athlete Seth Johnson has been described as an engaged listener by Cedar Shoals football defensive coordinator Brandon Stoudemire.
“He believes in himself, so much so that it allows him to make plays over people he probably shouldn’t make plays over. He just has enough confidence to go make it happen and, along with his attention to detail. He’s very good at paying attention to all the little details, and so his technique is generally flawless,” Stoudemire said.
Not only does Johnson have strong performance in sports, but he has also been rapping for three years, publishing three albums available to stream on any music app under the name 1babytune, or Lilsethyns. Johnson wants to make an encouraging impact on people through his influence in sports and rapping. He believes that the younger generation should chase their dreams and work hard to get where they want to be in life.
“I could use my influence to make a positive impact on them to make them notice that they can be something in life. If they just put their mind to it, like anything they want to do in life, they can do it,” Johnson said.
AWESOME ALBUMS: The graphic displays the three albums released by freshman rapper, football player and track runner Seth Johnson. Johnson also has four singles released, and is working to release more in the future. Johnson’s sister, freshman Samaj Johnson, believes that Seth has been working non-stop to improve his rapping. “After breakfast every day, Seth goes into his studio. He’s always trying to find some meaningful lyrics for rapping,” Samaj Johnson said. Graphic by Gretta Garrett.
Johnson’s sister, freshman Samaj Johnson, supports her brother’s different hobbies and considers herself a fan of his music.
“One of Seth’s songs I really like is the song he made called ‘DA 1.’ I like his music, and him getting MVP in eighth grade for the football C-team as well is cool to me,” Samaj Johnson said.
Samaj thinks that her brother separates himself from other young rappers through authenticity: not trying to be someone that he isn’t.
“He’s not like a lot of rappers, they really just want to be gang bangers and Seth isn’t really like that. He has priorities, he’s more of a student athlete and focuses on that,” Samaj said.
Seth has outperformed competition on the track this eason, posting a personal best 11.99 seconds in the 100m dash. For him, taking Stoudemire’s weight training class has been one main way to get ahead of the competition.
“It really does help. It helps my legs get stronger and makes me a lot faster. Things like squats, trap dead lift, power clean and other exercises help with my explosiveness,” Johnson said.
In football, Stoudemire has been very impressed with Johnson. He believes that Seth separates himself from other athletes his age by being a playmaker during games and being attentive during practice.
“I believe it might have been the JV game against Athens Academy, he made a one handed catch in that game that 95% of guys just can’t make. He made that catch, everybody that saw it was just like, ‘Wow,’ so he possesses the ability to do things that other people can’t do and that really shows out. Both his attention to detail and his focus, I think that’s what allows him to make those kinds of big time plays, when you put that with his athletic ability,” Stoudemire said.
“I could use my influence to make a positive impact on them to make them notice that they can be something in life. If they just put their mind to it, like anything they want to do in life, they can do it,”
Johnson aspires to be a college athlete and Stoudemire is doing his best to help him get there. Stoudemire hopes that Johnson will continue to focus academically because of the recent changes in collegiate recruiting.
“Right now the biggest thing is encouraging him (Seth) with his grades. I think right now getting a scholarship out of high school is harder than it’s ever been because of name, image and likeness- financial compensation. It used to be that you would have some school like UGA sign 25 guys, now maybe only five of their new players will be straight from high school,” Stoudemire said
During the spring season of high school sports, Johnson has been working hard to improve his times and get better every meet. He believes that his motivation is to beat his old personal best every meet.
“Just keep working, every meet I try to focus on the time that I made and how I can get better each week at practice and beat that time,” Johnson said.
