The Kid LAROI
photo: jack hayes · cc by 3.0 ↗Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard was born in 2003 in the Waterloo public-housing area of Sydney, and took the second half of his stage name from the Kamilaroi people of his maternal Aboriginal heritage. Mentored by Chicago rapper Juice WRLD, whom he supported on Australian tours in 2018 and 2019, he broke through internationally with the 2020 single 'Without You' before topping charts worldwide with the 2021 Justin Bieber collaboration 'Stay.' His guitar-tinged, melodically sung heartbreak made him one of the defining young voices of 2020s emo-rap-pop.
LAROI has repeatedly called Juice WRLD his mentor and biggest influence, describing hours in the studio watching how Juice worked and freestyled songs into being; the guitar-loop-driven, melodically sung heartbreak that runs through LAROI's music descends directly from that emo-rap template.
listen forThrow on Juice WRLD's 'Lucid Dreams' and then LAROI's 'Without You' — both ride a plaintive, looping melodic figure while the vocal slides between rapping and a cracked, sung hook about being left behind.
LAROI has named Kanye West among the artists he grew up idolizing; the melodic, Auto-Tuned, heartbroken sung-rap mode Kanye explored on '808s & Heartbreak' is a clear ancestor of LAROI's synth-lined, emotionally bare pop-rap.
listen forSet Kanye's cold, Auto-Tuned 'Heartless' against LAROI's 'Thousand Miles' — both wrap a wounded vocal that is sung more than rapped in glossy synths and a drum-machine pulse, making heartbreak sound widescreen.
LAROI grew up on Tupac — records his mother played around the house — and has singled out 'Brenda's Got a Baby' as a song he loved; that model of turning raw, unguarded personal feeling into song surfaces in LAROI's most diaristic, confessional tracks.
listen forPlay Tupac's empathetic, narrative 'Brenda's Got a Baby' and then LAROI's 'So Done' — both put plainspoken emotional honesty at the center rather than hiding behind bravado.