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As of this week, The Kid LAROI has landed his first number one album in the US.
In case you only consume Australian media that remains fixated on the era of music that was popular when most of our country’s Gen-X culture journalists were rocking whiteboy dreadlocks and eyebrow rings, the Kid Laroi is a 17-year-old Koori rapper/singer who was raised in the housing commission flats of Waterloo.
While the teenager has not been received the same publicity in his home country as he does in America, he is very much a local hero in Redfern and surrounds, where the residents remember him by his real name ‘Charlton’.
This week, his name is now one that echoes through the households of middle America, after his debut mixtape ‘F*ck Love’ went to number one on the US Billboard Chart.
Working with the late Juice Wrld, The Kid Laroi was an ARIA Platinum artist as early as July last year, but was unable to make a headline in Australia due to the fact that we have plenty of other cool musicians we should be talking about like G Flip and Sheppard.
His newest single ‘Stay’ – which features Justin Bieber – has only accelerated his success, making it to #1 in Australia and #3 in the US.
LAROI is the youngest male solo artist to have a US #1 since 2015 – and nd the first Australian to take out the US #1 since AC/DC.
With this kind of record-breaking rise to the top, the rise of The Kid Laroi is becoming even harder for Australia’s whitewashed music journalists to ignore – especially now that he has pipped Russell Crowe as the most successful recording artist from South Sydney.
For nearly 30 years since the release of their debut record ‘The Photograph Kills’ EP, Russell Crowe’s band ’30 Odd Foot Of Grunts’ has stood unrivalled as the biggest musical act to come out of the Rabbitohs territory.
However, today marks a passing of the torch between the Gladiator and The Kid.
Speaking to The The Betoota Advocate today, the Kid LAROI says he hopes he can make uncle Rusty proud, and says he wouldn’t be where is today without the influence that Oscar-winner’s brand of stoner-pub-rock had on him as a young boy.
“I owe it all to you, Maximus” said the Kid Laroi.
