One of Laroi’s callouts would fall into the hands of Petrina Convey, the former vice president of artist development and cultural marketing at Sony Music Australia. In 2018, a competition to work with American record producer Jermaine Dupri was circulating online so Laroi uploaded a short freestyle. It was doing the rounds in the Sony offices and Convey was asked for her opinion. “The reason a lot of people do things is because of the ‘what’, and then there’s a very small selection of humans that do things because of the ‘why’. To meet a kid that young, with that much self-awareness and that much artistic integrity, it just shows he’s exactly where he deserves to be. In the trajectory of The Kid LAROI, the stadium tour and the halftime show represent more than just the rapid growth of his fanbase.
Laroi, who was 17 at the time, was with Juice when he passed. BEFORE HE WAS THE KID LAROI, a stage name inspired by his family’s Kamilaroi heritage, he was MC Six. Born in the Sydney neighbourhood of Waterloo, young Charlton Howard was writing his own bars by the age of six, having grown up listening to his mother play Erykah Badu and 2Pac around the house. Alongside sports – he played Aussie Rules when living near Adelaide then rugby league when in Sydney – music was the constant thread throughout his childhood.
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Defined by steady work, 2020 became Laroi’s breakout year. He released 10 singles before his first major breakthrough – the insanely catchy ‘Without You’, featuring Miley Cyrus, became a mega hit, scoring him his first No.1 in Australia. Next came his debut mixtape Fuck Love, on which he unleashed a hugely successful formula of melodic rap punctuated with pop-infused hooks.
Studio albums
The reaction was positive without being overwhelming. There wasn’t, Laroi says, the dopamine hit of crazy first-week sales like he’d had in the past. With this album, however, there was a slow build, a gradual momentum that saw songs like ‘Nights Like This’ take off months after release. It was as if Laroi had led his fanbase, and indeed himself, to uncharted territory and everyone needed time to catch up. I was like, Okay, fuck, I’ve got to make an album now, but I don’t really know what I want to make.
The Kid LAROI enters a new chapter
“I’m really excited about this new era of stuff that I’ve got,” he continues. Where I felt so confused by everything, that I felt very beat down. Fuck everything, I don’t even want to fucking do music anymore. And as a result of that, we got a really sick album. It seems each step of his journey has been marred by some episode of personal grief.
The resultant album, The First Time, takes Laroi to places he’s never been. Whereas its predecessor is all teenage angst punctuated with spiteful, punchy raps, The First Time feels more like the complete story. The lyrics are less impulsive and more thoughtful and the production far more diverse, as the Mustard beats make way for moments of acoustic guitar and piano from Robert Glasper. It’s an album not created for the immediate gratification of an algorithm but, rather, one that straddles both worlds, old and new.
Extended plays
Today, he’s decked out in Giorgio Armani as we dress him for the cover of Esquire Australia. That fried little kid has made way for a softly spoken young man who arrives on set with armed security and a polite request for some fried chicken from his beloved Clem’s, the cult Newtown restaurant near where he grew up. Our interview happens later, when he’s back home in LA; his view takes in the Hollywood Hills, where so many icons have built their legacies. But while Laroi now finds himself in the City of Angels, his story begins in the state of New South Wales. He describes the NRL show, in particular, as a “full-circle moment”.
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When I finally manage to attend a Kid LAROI concert, it’s 2024 and I’m sitting deep in the stands of Sydney’s CommBank Stadium surrounded by 25,000 of his screaming fans. It’s one leg of an epic eight-stop Australian tour that comes off the back of his performance at the NRL Grand Final in October. During a break in the show, the enormity of his achievements appears to dawn on Laroi as he takes off his sunglasses to look out upon his home crowd. The Kid Laroi has always had a hint of Drake to his music, but his new single, “A Cold Play,” dives all the way into the brokenhearted lothario bag, recounting a dissolved relationship while subtly blaming the other person. “It’ll always be forex weekly open strategy easy to blamе you / But it’s my fault for thinking I could / Fix you, fix you, fix you, fix you,” he croons over an icy beat produced by KBeazy. “I don’t know if you believe in God or if you believe in the universe,” she tells me. “But there is something in that young man that is .
- The Apple Music host saw Laroi perform at 15 and was blown away.
- “Well, this is pretty insane,” he says, laughing in disbelief.
- Alongside his stylistic evolution, Laroi is moving beyond music into acting.
- One of Laroi’s callouts would fall into the hands of Petrina Convey, the former vice president of artist development and cultural marketing at Sony Music Australia.
For Laroi, the Dream Big studios became his Gladiator school. Honing his craft with instruction from his elders, Laroi was growing – but he knew he still needed experience in theoutside world. So he started sending his music to various celebrities online, in the hope itwould reach the right person. Semiirè says Laroi even spoke about meeting and working with Juice WRLD and the director Cole Bennett – a scenario that would eventuate soon after and become a turning point in Laroi’s evolution. “He manifested everything he did,” says Semiirè.
There was an endearingly vulnerable sense of melancholy, spliced with enough rebellion to make it subversive. But it was 2021’s ‘Stay’, with Justin Bieber, that sent things into the stratosphere. Topping the charts in eight countries, the song is certified platinum 17 times in Australia. The Kid LAROI had officially gone from burgeoning rap star to global pop star.
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- “Even at that age, he knew what sounds he wanted, what sounds he didn’t want.
- In the six-and-a-bit years since that show, he’s gone on to win five Billboard Music Awards, two ARIAs, has been nominated for two Grammys and even has a McDonald’s Happy Meal named after him.
- “A Cold Play” is the third single The Kid Laroi has released in as many months, prompting speculation that a new album announcement could be on the way sooner rather than later.
- In 2018, a competition to work with American record producer Jermaine Dupri was circulating online so Laroi uploaded a short freestyle.
As he was finding his way as a young artist, he encountered the death of his uncle. Then, after moving to the States to progress his career, he found himself taken under the wing of Juice WRLD, an artist navigating the journey of fame just a few steps ahead of Laroi. A few years into their friendship, Juice WRLD would die of an overdose, six days after his 21st birthday.
2020: 14 with a Dream
Between sets at Coachella last year he flew to and from New Jersey to shoot scenes for the A24 movie Y2K in which he plays a “soccer jock”. And if you respect the word of Zane Lowe, Apple Music DJ and all-around music tastemaker, then Laroi’s talent level is generational. The Apple Music host saw Laroi perform at 15 and was blown away. This was just stepping my foot in the door a tiny bit.
Nonetheless, I RSVP’d in the hope of finding out what the hype was all about. But, as the afternoon wore on, I came down with a cold and stayed home. ‘No matter, I’ll catch him next time,’ I told myself. “A Cold Play” is the third single The Kid Laroi has released in as many months, prompting speculation that a new album announcement could be on the way sooner rather than later.
