The Kid LAROI: the story so far

The Kid LAROI just won’t stop reaching new milestones, and now he’s made Hottest 100 history.

The 18-year-old – a proud Kamilaroi man (which, incidentally, is where he gets his stage name) - is now the highest ranking Indigenous artist ever in triple j’s Hottest 100. It’s thanks to his blockbuster collaboration with Justin Bieber, ‘Stay', which spent the last year topping charts around the world and has now placed at #2 in the Hottest 100 of 2021.

An upbeat bop pleading for their lovers to reconsider splitting, ‘Stay’ overtakes the record previously held by Thelma Plum’s ‘Better in Blak’ (#9 in the Hottest 100 of 2019).

Earning the #2 hottest song of the year now brings The Kid LAROI’s Hottest 100 tally to three, after debuting in the countdown in 2020 with two entries (‘SO DONE’ at #37 and his Juice WRLD collab ‘GO’ at #60).

It’s another massive achievement in a long list of them for The Kid LAROI, who’s had one of the most remarkable career arcs of recent memory. Many might be familiar with the broad strokes, but it’s a success story that bears repeating and worth re-emphasising his rapid and unlikely ascent.

In just three years, he’s gone from an ambitious teen hustling and rapping on the streets of Sydney, to a Los Angeles-based pop star dominating streaming and charts figures. In November, he was awarded Artist of the Year at the National Indigenous Music Awards and is nominated for 2021 Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards.

He made ARIA chart history with his F*CK LOVE mixtape trilogy, which ‘Stay’ is lifted from, while the single itself debuted at #1 in Australia. The track also spent 10 weeks atop the US charts, making LAROI the youngest-ever Australian artist to reach #1 in America.

"How good is Australian music?" he said accepting Best Artist at the ARIA Awards in November, where ‘Stay’ won Best Pop Release. "Starting this [career], that's all I ever wanted to do was just bring up the culture and show the world how good Australian music was."

True to his word, LAROI’s ARIAs acceptance speech echoes what he told us when we first met him as an Unearthed High finalist in 2018, when he was ‘14 with a dream’.

“This is a big vision, but I’m really trying to do what Drake did for Toronto and Canada… My goal is to put Australian music on the amp and showcase its music culture to the rest of the world.”

Mission accomplished?

"Seeing his journey from Unearthed High, back then, to where he is now? It’s a big spin out” says Blak Out host Nooky, who’s known LAROI since day dot. “The thing with LAROI is he had all the talent in the world and knew how to capitalise on it.”

Where did The Kid LAROI come from?

The Kid LAROI (real name Charlton Howard) was born and raised in Redfern, a Sydney suburb that has deep historical cultural ties with First Nations people, and is proud of his Kamilaroi heritage on his mother’s side. (His great, great grandfather was part of the Stolen Generation).

He’s spoken in interviews about having a tough upbringing, including relocating to Broken Hill to live with his mother when his parents split, floating between project housing and friends’ houses, and the death of his uncle, who was murdered in 2015.

“It’s been an interesting life,” he told Richard Kingsmill on triple j in 2020. “I feel like I’m 40 years old at the age of 16.” But that only drive him to hustle harder to get where he is today, and makes him all the more grateful for his success.

Earning a scholarship on his talent, a young LAROI attended an inner-city performing arts school four days a week but devoted the rest of his time to music: hunkering down in an studio recording raps, producing beats, and learning the business from others in the Sydney scene.

"I remember the lad running around Sydney in his little Rabbitohs jumper," recalls Nooky. "And now seeing him over there with Bieber, topping the charts, selling out shows all over the world. It's mad. But he doesn't forget where he's from and still reachable... sort of," he laughs. We chat every now and then; he gives me little birthday shout-outs for me and my nephews."

"He’s a top tier artist, he belongs at the top. Just undeniable what he does."

At age 12, LAROI caught the attention of Sydney-based producer Khaled Rohaim, whose credits include multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated work for Ariana Grande and Rihanna. He wondered what a kid was doing in the studio.

“He played me four songs and I was blown away,” Rohaim told Sydney Morning Herald in 2020. “I was like, 'You're better than all the writers that I work with… In a year or two, you're going to be one of the biggest artists in the world’.”

He’d end up regularly driving his penniless young protégé to his North Strathfield studio. “I’d pick him up from a different spot in Waterloo, Newtown, Camperdown – he’d be staying at a different house like every two or three days. He had no money, so we used to just eat together and record together."

Uploading his music to Soundcloud and social media, he amassed a local following and eventually scored a development deal with Sony Music Australia in 2017. Two years later, he inked a deal with Grade A Productions exec Lil Bibby, who signed him in a joint deal with Columbia Records and connected him with a figure who’d prove crucial in The Kid LAROI’s career.

An apprenticeship with Juice WRLD

Off the success of his breakout streaming blockbuster ‘Lucid Dreams’, Chicago rapper Juice WRLD was the biggest star of both Grade A Productions and the burgeoning emo-rap scene.

LAROI opened for Juice WRLD on his first ever Australian tour and the two bonded quickly, with the latter US rapper becoming a strong mentor for the rising talent. When the then-16-year-old relocated to Los Angeles, he lived with Juice and his entourage for three months before his mother and little brother could make the trip over.

But in December 2019, Juice WRLD died of an accidental overdose, gone too soon just days after celebrating his 21st birthday. LAROI was present on the private plane where Juice spent his final moments, and recounted what went down in HBO Max doco Into The Abyss, which accompanied the recent release of second posthumous album Fighting Demons. Watch below.

LAROI was in the middle of recording what would become F*CK LOVE when Juice WRLD passed. He paid tribute to his late, great mentor and friend in the project via the heartbreaking ode ‘TELL ME WHY’ and in the lead single ‘Go’, which featured a verse recorded as an apology for missing LAROI’s 16th birthday (as he told triple j last year).

F*CK LOVE blows up

Juice didn’t live to see the success of his protégé but he’d surely be proud of how hard and fast The Kid LAROI’s first body of work went big.

Released in July 2020, F*CK LOVE had a stronger narrative arc than your average mixtape – documenting the hurt, heartache and confusion of a disintegrating romance over anguished trap beats and hooky melodies.

Blending the tortured nihilism of emo-rap forebears like Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Peep, and XXXTentacion with the tortured pop sensibilities of Post Malone and, yes, Juice WRLD.

The sound was a perfect fit for streaming playlists, TikTok and radio and debuted in the Top 10 in Australia and the US, officially cementing The Kid LAROI’s status from rookie to emerging pro.

As we wrote when triple j featured F*CK LOVE upon its release:

“How does a 16-year-old up-and-comer even have time to commit to romance? He doesn’t. And that’s what makes the anguish and turbulence at the centre of these songs authentic.

He might differ sonically, but like fellow prodigies Billie Eilish, Ruel, and Lorde before him, a big part of The Kid LAROI’s appeal is how he expresses teenage angst with an emotional maturity beyond his years. He may not be able to legally vote or go to a bar, but he can convince you with his howls and tremors that the hurt and confusion he’s feeling is genuine.”

We also predicted The Kid LAROI was destined for bigger things. And we weren’t wrong.

In November 2020, a second instalment titled F*CK LOVE (SAVAGE) added seven tracks to the mixtape project, which rose to #3 in the US. By February 2021 it had reached the top of the ARIA Album Charts, making LAROI the youngest Australian solo artist to hit #1 since Delta Goodrem back in 2003 (before The Kid was even born)!

Its ascent was buoyed by ‘WITHOUT YOU’, which was already a Platinum-certified hit before Miley Cyrus hopped on board for a remix that pushed the track up to #1 in Australia and to #8 in the US, giving LAROI his first Top 10 hit.

A bump that was no doubt benefited by Miley inviting LAROI to perform the song with her on a coveted SNL slot, in an episode hosted by Elon Musk.

Two months later, LAROI would release ‘Stay’ in anticipation of F*CK LOVE 3+: OVER YOU - the third and final expansion to his mixtape, bringing it up to 35 tracks total and augmenting his already titanic streaming figures.

Justin Bieber had tapped The Kid LAROI for a track on his Justice album, titled ‘Unstable’, which had peaked at #62 on the US Charts before returning the favour on ‘Stay’. It would perform much better for both artists, and the rest is Hottest 100 history.

It might be surprising to see Justin Bieber: Pop Mega Star in triple j’s long-running countdown for the first time ever, and at #2 no less, but his music has featured before. Namely, in 2016, when Halsey’s cover of Bieber’s ‘Love Yourself’ recorded for Like A Version made it to #52 in the Hottest 100.

It’s a clear example of how the Hottest 100 has evolved over its 30 year history, reflecting the changing tastes of our nation and its youth. And of particular importance in relation to The Kid LAROI, the increased presence and success of First Nations artists.

A.B. Original became the first Indigenous act to crack the Top 20 when the incendiary ‘January 26’  reached #16 in the Hottest 100 of 2016. The following year, Baker Boy brought Indigenous lanuage to the countdown’s top end with his bilingual banger ‘Marryuna’ reaching #17.

In 2019, Thelma Plum made history with ‘Better In Blak’ at #9 , and last year a record-setting six songs from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists featured in the countdown: one each from Thelma Plum, Sycco, Beddy Rays, Birdz, and two from The Kid LAROI.

His #2 ranking with ‘Stay’ this year is one of five Indigenous songs in the 2021 countdown: Baker Boy’s collab with G Flip, ‘My Mind’; Ziggy Ramo’s rework of Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody classic ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’, and two cuts from King Stingray, the Yolŋu surf-rockers and Unearthed Artist of the Year who have blood ties to Yothu Yindi (the iconic Australian act that first featured in a Hottest 100 with their 1991 smash ‘Treaty’ at #83).

What comes next for The Kid LAROI?

The 18-year-old hasn’t been shy about the fact he’s moving on from his F*CK LOVE trilogy. Although he’s publicly he’s remains proud (and overwhelmed) by all its accomplishments, his focus has remained on releasing his first proper studio album.

“It’s been a wild year to say the least,” the teen sensation wrote in a note to fans in November, announcing he was taking a well-earned break to focus on his proper debut album. “I do believe that this is what I need to do to give you all the best music possible.”

There’s still no concrete release date but The Kid LAROI is returning home for a hugely anticipated Australian tour, headlining arenas through May and June for his first official tour of the nation (let that sink in).

In addition to his forthcoming debut album, LAROI revealed in an interview with Billboard that he has several projects in the works, including one that will explore his Indigenous heritage and roots as a member of the Kamilaroi tribe.

One thing’s for certain, after his meteoric rise and asteroid-sized impact on the global music scene, The Kid LAROI isn’t going away anytime soon.

Who knows? Maybe he could better that #2 position and become the first ever Indigenous artist to win a future Hottest 100...