Laravel

Development Code
1

Hi guys I am working on a small laravel project and I dont understand why something isnt working. I have a web side that sends a ajax call to a REST API. When the server code takes a request such as

public function createUser(Request $request)
    {
        $username = $request->get('username');
        $password = $request->get('password');
        $password2 = $request->get('password2');
        $email = $request->get('emailAddress');
        $phone = $request->get('phoneNumber');
        $librarian = $request->get('librarian');

        Log::info($request);
}

It prints this out in the logs

[2017-11-28 03:20:39] local.INFO: array (
  '{"username":"sdrafahl","password":"st","password2":"st","emailAddress":"shanedrafahl@gmail_com","phoneNumber":"6414171599","librarian":0}' => NULL,
)

I have trouble trying to access these attributes. On the server side when I try.

public function createUser(Request $request)
    {
        $username = $request->get('username');
        $password = $request->get('password');
        $password2 = $request->get('password2');
        $email = $request->get('emailAddress');
        $phone = $request->get('phoneNumber');
        $librarian = $request->get('librarian');

        $req = $request->get('username');

        Log::info($req);
}

It does not print anything?