The Untold Truth Of The Kid LAROI

Virtually unknown at the beginning of 2020, The Kid LAROI has since established himself as a major force in the music scene. The Australian rapper, who turned 18 in 2021, has already collaborated with some of pop's biggest hitmakers as his own star continues to rise. Born Charlton Howard in Sydney, Australia, he began rapping at age 10, and never looked back. In addition to racking up millions upon millions of views on YouTube (as of this writing, his videos for "Without You" and "Stay," for example, boast 72 million and 121 million views, respectively), he has also become one of the most-streamed musicians of all time: as Forbes reported, by March 2021, his "F*** LOVE (SAVAGE)" mixtape had been streamed on Spotify over 1.28 billion times.

Speaking with Forbes, The Kid LAROI reflected on his meteoric rise. "I do sit back sometimes and say, 'D**n, this s**t is crazy,' but I've kind of been wanting to do this my whole life, so it's amazing to finally get the opportunity to do this because not a lot of people where I'm from get this kind of opportunity," he mused. Despite the massive success he's achieved within such a relatively short period of time, there's a lot about this talented young rapper that fans of his music may not be aware of. With that in mind, keep reading for a deep dive into the untold truth of The Kid LAROI.

How The Kid LAROI's debut mixtape became a No. 1 album — a year after its release

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When The Kid LAROI released his debut mixtape, "F*** LOVE," in 2020, it debuted at No. 8 on Billboard's album chart. As The New York Times pointed out, under normal circumstances that would have been the peak; however, the rapper's label embarked on an unusual strategy of releasing subsequent "deluxe" versions of the album, adding new songs to each version. The second version, titled "F** LOVE (SAVAGE)," added an additional seven tracks, and hit No. 3 on the Billboard chart.

Two more versions followed, one with seven new tracks and then, a few days later, another with six. All told, noted The Times, the "full package" of The Kid LAROI's debut boasts 35 songs. "Since the newer versions are updates to the original album, they are counted as one collection on Billboard's chart — a tactic that took hold last year, particularly in hip-hop, and has proved a successful chart strategy," the paper explained, noting that this scheme ultimately pushed the album to finally hit the No. 1 spot — more than a year after its initial release.

The success of the mixtape also led The Kid LAROI to set a long-held chart record in his native Australia. According to Billboard, when "F*** LOVE (SAVAGE)" hit No. 1 on Australia's ARIA Albums Chart, the artist made history at age 17 as the youngest-ever Australian solo artist to hit that chart peak.

His uncle's haunting words have never left him

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As a child, The Kid LAROI's father wasn't in the picture much after his parents split up. "In the early stages of my life, my dad was always in and out, so my uncle was a really big like male figure in my life," he explained in an interview with Sidedoor. When his uncle was murdered, it crystallized his drive to succeed as a rapper. "Cause he would always tell me, 'Stick to rapping, don't ever do no dumb s**t, don't become like me, don't do the things that I do, I want you to stick to rapping,' so I was like, 'D**n I wanna take it seriously now.' That was the main thing that fueled me at like 10, like, 'Yeah I want to do this now."

Even years later, The Kid LAROI's late uncle's words have continued to provide inspiration. "Before my uncle was murdered, he would stress to me how important it was that I keep rapping and stay focused," the rapper wrote on Twitter in June 2020. "When I was little I told him 'but I want to be like you,' to which he replied 'if you turn out like me, I'll be disappointed.' Those words have stuck with me forever."