RUSSEL ABAD: Becoming the musical protégé of the late Juice WRLD
and signing to Lil Bibby is no small task.
But Australian rapper and singer The Kid LAROI pulled it off all before the age of 16.
Laroi’s kept eyes glued on him over the last few months, dropping a slew of viral
songs and videos before finally releasing his awaited mixtape ‘FUCK LOVE.’
RUSSEL ABAD: We’re tracing The Kid LAROI’s rise in the game,
starting oceans away from the artists he looked up to.
LAROI: Yes, I did grow up in Australia. I’m from
Australia. I love that place. Shoutout to Australia. But growing up, I never listened
to Australian music. My mom never played any Aussie rap or Aussie hip-hop. It was a lot
of Tupac, Fugees, even Erykah Badu.
RUSSEL: It was those sounds in his childhood home which
would spark Laroi’s love for music and American hip-hop.
Long before working with Cole Bennet, Lil Tecca, and….
ADDISON RAE: I need a bad bleep.
RUSSEL: ...Addison Rae.
And long before he was The Kid LAROI,
he was Charlton Howard, born in Sydney and raised both there and in rural Broken Hill,
Australia.
LAROI: We’ve been times where we’ve been poor,
when we’ve been up, when we’ve been homeless on the street.
RUSSEL: His foray into music began with finding beats
on YouTube and posting videos on Facebook.
LAROI: I had like a different rap name back then.
I was like, “Yo, I’m MC Six. I’m spittin’ rhymes on the beat. Don’t try to play this
player ‘cause I’m straight off the streets.” That’s how I used to rap when I was like seven.
RUSSEL: By age 12, he caught the attention of Adelaide,
Australia producer Marcus Jr and began making music and performing with him under the name
Dream$Team.
RUSSEL: In 2018, at age 14, Laroi submitted his demo
track “Disconnect” into a contest for upcoming high school artists
hosted by Australian radio station Triple J.
RUSSEL: His last minute submission made it to the
final round, earning Laroi his first taste of national attention.
ANNOUNCER: The Kid LAROI himself joins us on the line now. Mate, you’ve just found out you’re
in the top five for Unearthed High. How you feeling?
KID LAROI: No, that’s crazy, man. I actually just woke up not long ago, ready for school.
RUSSEL: The same month, Laroi dropped his first self-titled
EP ‘14 With A Dream.’
The project showcases Laroi’s knack for melody, which remains his proven formula.
His first single “Blessings” finds Laroi predicting his fame and success early on,
but staying patient with the process.
RUSSEL: In 2019, Laroi signed to Columbia Records
and Grade A Productions, the label of Chicago drill rapper turned record exec Lil Bibby
and his brother G-Money.
LAROI: I got a call. It was from Lil Bibby
and G-Money. And they said, “Hey, we want to sign you to Grade A. We’re going to fly you to
New York, and we’re gonna get everything locked in and loaded.” I was like, “OK." And that was my first big check
that I had earned.
VANESSA SATTEN: How’d you end up with an Australian kid?
LIL BIBBY: I heard his music and that shit just blew
me away. I’ve been trying to sign him for a whole year.
RUSSEL: With Juice WRLD already a star on Grade A,
Laroi was a natural fit as the opener for Juice WRLD’s first Australian tour.
LAROI: The first time we met was in the hotel room,
I was with Pete, my manager, and we were talking and then he knocked on the door. And Pete's
like, “Oh, go and get that.” And I opened it and it was fucking Juice and I was like,
"Oh my God. It’s fucking Juice WRLD." I was a super, super big fan, I was like, "Oh my God."
RUSSEL: Traveling and even living together for a bit,
Juice WRLD became a close friend and big brother to Laroi.
ALLY LOTTI: He loved Jared so much just in general. And
we loved him. We had a whole fucking week with you, honest to God. Everything, we were
like, “Laroi, c’mon let’s go!” After that, it was game over. It was family.
LAROI: We just became super cool, just being around each other,
every day almost
Everything just happened super natural.
LAROI: Make some noise for my boy Juice WRLD one time.
JUICE WRLD: Make some noise for my brother, Laroi, one motherfuckin’ time!
RUSSEL: Sadly, Juice WRLD’s second tour in Australia
would be some of his last shows ever before his sudden passing from an accidental overdose
in December 2019.
LAROI: You know, like little private talks and stuff that we used
to have that I always keep in my mind. It’s stuff I’ll always remember for the rest
of my life.
RUSSEL: A mutual friend of Juice’s and another important
person in Laroi’s career, is Lyrical Lemonade’s Cole Bennett.
He directed Laroi’s first high-profile music video for “Let Her Go” – giving the Aussie
teenager more eyes on him than ever before.
Two months later, Cole dropped another video for Laroi’s “Diva” featuring fellow
teen rapper Lil Tecca.
RUSSEL: Then, like any teenager in 2020, Laroi found
his way onto TikTok.
LAROI: I had no fucking TikTok followers and everybody’s been
telling me, “Bro, you've got to get on TikTok, you've got to get on TikTok.”
So like, alright, cool. And I was just in the studio one day with my homie, Haan.
He made a beat.
LAROI: We recorded it. It was only literally three or four lines,
and then I was just like, "Bounce this shit out, I'm going to make a TikTok to it." So
I just stared the camera and I started the line.
LAROI: I need a bad bitch, Addison Rae. Shawty the baddest.
RUSSEL: With over 50 million followers, Addison Rae
is one of the biggest influencers on the app.
LAROI: The next day, my friend calls me and he's
like, “Bro! You've got to check her page right now. She just made a video.”
MUSIC: I need a bad bitch, Addison Rae. Shawty the baddest.
RUSSEL: That clip of Addison showing her mom Laroi’s
snippet with her name had fans itching for a full song, which Laroi would drop a week
later and is now one one of his most popular tracks.
RUSSEL: In June 2020, Laroi dropped the Juice WRLD-accompanied
track “GO '' with a video that revealed Juice’s verse was a 16th birthday gift to Laroi.
LAROI: “GO” was the first song I recorded when I came out to LA. For my birthday,
Juice and Bibby, they all took me to Greece. Juice slept through the whole
shit, like he didn’t come, like he slept through the whole shit. “Shit, I’m sorry I slept in through your birthday dinner, but
shit, I’ll give you a verse for your birthday. Let’s making a fucking hit.”
JUICE WRLD: Up all night recording and shit. Motherfucker’s was sleeping all day, but shit. You know,
I’m always. We can make a hit for your birthday. I’ll give you a verse.
That’s a 200 thousand dollar gift, lil bro.
RUSSEL: The next month, Laroi appeared on Juice’s
first posthumous album ‘Legends Never Die.’
RUSSEL: And now, Laroi’s finally dropped his first full-length
project ‘FUCK LOVE.’ The 15-track mixtape features Juice WRLD on “GO” as well as
singles “TELL ME WHY,” “NOT FAIR,” and “I WISH.”
RUSSEL: From his roots in Australia to his numbers
on YouTube and TikTok, The Kid LAROI is a testament to hip-hop’s global reach in the
digital age.
With help from some of the best in the game, at just 16, he’s proved to be an artist
to watch.
What’s your favorite track from Laroi’s latest project? Let us know in the comments.
I’m Russel Abad for Genius News, bringing you the meaning and the knowledge behind the music.