At just 17 years old, The Kid Laroi is already on top of the world. He has made a name for himself in a short span of just three years, with some critics claiming he’s much bigger than Justin Bieber with whom he collaborated on the song Stay.

Since bursting onto the international music scene in 2019, the teenager has become one of Australia's most successful artists.

But life looked very different for Laroi, whose baptized name is Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard. Lario’s maternal great-great grandfather was a part of the Stolen Generation of children of mixed Aboriginal descent; he was taken from his Aboriginal family, placed into an unrelated white family and was told he was "Spanish" to hide his true origins and explain his darker complexion. This great-great grandfather later found out, at the age of eighteen, that he was in fact of Aboriginal background.

The name Laroi is from the Kamilaroi (or Gamilaraay) people of Australia, from which Howard derived his artist name ‘Laroi’.

Laroi was born (born 17 August 2003), in Waterloo, Sydney, and grew up in relative poverty, spending his formative years in a housing commission block and couch surfing with his mother.

Laroi developed a passion for music from a young age, thanks to the influence of his mother Sloane, music executive, and his father Nick, a French music producer.  His mother played lots of hip-hop music such as Erykah Badu and the Fugees. 

Laroi’s parents separated when he was only four, which left him to be brought up by his mother. At the age of seven, he moved to the rural town of Broken Hill, a dusty mining town in far west New South Wales to live with his mother, brother, uncle and grandparents. 

Laroi isn’t your usual social media teenage pop star who came from a poor family and made it big and things like that. He worked his way up by listening to his mother who guided him each step of the way. As he got a little older, he realized that music was the perfect outlet for his feelings and the difficult experiences he faced growing up in Australia.  By age 10, Laroi had already decided he wanted a career as a musician.  

He attended Sacred Hart Parish School where he was a house captain and won a speaking award. He participated in various activities while at school and in 2015 attended a boarding school in Adelaide. When he was just 11 years old, a family tragedy left him in turmoil. His uncle who was living with him was brutally murdered. This left a scar on Laroi in his growing up years.  He took to rapping at the age of 13, predominantly as an outlet to process his family struggles and get over the death of his uncle. Laroi and his mother returned to Sydney, living in a housing commission block in Redfern Waterloo.  

He started to focus on his music seriously and began attending Sydney's Australian Performing Arts Grammar School in Adelaide on a scholarship. Over time, they were evicted after complaints about noise and traffic in the infamous Drysdale housing commission building. 

Laroi started out recording raps over beats on his mother's phone and uploading them to SoundCloud. He took the name "FC6" and in 2015, formed the duo "Dream Team" with Adelaide rapper DJ Marcus Jr. (aka LadyKiller) who became his mentor and support. The two recorded songs together and performed to local audiences. Marcus guided him through promoting, recording and developing a buzz around himself. Laroi’s mother in the meantime created "Mama Capone Management" to promote the duo and her son's career. He was often referred to as "Charlton Laroi" in her promotions. Dream Team quickly gained attention on the local scene, but eventually disbanded for unknown reasons.

Laroi then met up with Grammy-nominated producer Khaled Rohaim at a recording studio in Sydney. Observing Laroi’s immense talent and difficult living situation, Rohaim trained the young lad in writing songs for other artists like A Boogie. But that didn’t really bring in the money Laroi was looking for, although he released his debut EP, ‘14 with a Dream’.

Left homeless and penniless, the mother – son alongwith Laroi’s younger brother spent the next two years couch surfing, while Laroi did everything possible to make money from his music.  

He achieved modest success as a finalist in Australian radio station Triple J's Unearthed High competition, but his real breakthrough came when he was signed as international rap sensation Juice WRLD’s label mate at Grade A Productions in 2019.

The duo quickly became close, with Laroi even referring to Juice (Jarad Anthony Higgins), as his 'big brother' after being selected to support him on the Sydney and Melbourne legs of his Australian tour in November 2019.

Fate took a cruel turn for Laroi who was just beginning to get noticed when on 8^th December 2019, Juice WRLD who shadowed Laroi and gave him his identity, died at the age of 21, after suffering a reported seizure of drug overdose at Chicago’s Midway International Airport. Juice had celebrated his 21^st birthday just days ago on 2^nd December.

Prior to his death, Juice recorded a verse for the track Go, the lead single on Laroi's debut mixtape. Laroi recorded the track in early 2020 and upon its release, he instantly rose to fame overnight. Go peaked in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number 52 - topping megastar Justin Bieber who he's often been compared to.

With success written all over him, Laroi secured a record deal with Sony Music Australia and relocated from Sydney to Los Angeles with his family.

In an interview to a publication, Laroi recalled his earlier days of struggle and how he managed to overcome them and make his dreams a reality, even if it meant not having a lot of money or the right connections.  Laroi’s mom said things to him like, “You can do it. Just put your mind to it.” In the interview he shares anecdotes of being up late at night with his mom sometimes trying to find contact information for visiting artists like Young Money. “I would go and wait outside hotel rooms for big artists that were coming to town. I’d try to play my music and find different ways to meet them or get backstage. That was a big thing I used to do for about two years,” recounts Laroi.

Laroi’s constant closeness to his mother and younger brother helped him stay grounded and remain happy and confident amidst the hustle and bustle of the entertainment industry. 

Laroi’s says that Juice WRLD influenced him in countless ways, including his songwriting and recording process. Juice WRLD also taught Laroi about the importance of focusing on a particular emotion when making a song or album. 

Since his music explorations began, Laroi has collaborated with various artists, although he has no album released as yet.

His debut mixtape ‘F*ck Love’ (June 2020) peaked at number one on the Australian ARIA charts, making him the youngest Australian solo artist ever to reach the top, and also reached number one on the US Billboard 200.

His mixtape ‘F*ck Love’ features music from Lil Mosey, Corbin, and Juice WRLD, besides many other artists. Laroi's songs Without You and its remix with Miley Cyrus and the super hit Stay (with Justin Bieber) reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, with Stay peaking at number one for seven non-consecutive weeks. Without You went on the peak at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Laroi's first top-ten single as a lead artist.

His other musical work includes Diva, featuring American rapper Lil Tecca which was accompanied by a music video directed by Cole Bennett (Lyrical Lemonade). A few months into 2020 and he released Addison Rae, a song named after the social media personality star of the same name. This propelled the artist Addison Rae who later became a TikTok sensation.

In March, he made a cameo appearance in American rapper Lil Mosey’s music video for Blueberry Faygo, followed by Fade Away with American rapper Lil Tjay. Paying glowing tribute to his mentor Laroi released Tell Me Why, a tribute track to Juice Wrld.

On 2^nd November, Laroi revealed his next project's title to be ‘Savage’ on Instagram which would be released as a deluxe edition to his EP.  It was eventually released four days later on 6^th November and peaked at number one on the Australian ARIA charts, as well as number 3 on the US Billboard 200.

Early this year in March, Laroi was featured on Bieber’s sixth studio album ‘Justice’ on the song Unstable. In June 2021, Laroi left Grade A Productions and signed a management deal with Scooter Braum who also represents artists such as Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.

Around this time, Laroi released his second edition of his super successful ‘F*ck Love’, titled ‘F*ck Love 3: Over You’ which contained 6 songs and guest appearances from Polo G, Stunna Gambino, G Herbo and Lil Durk. ‘F*ck Love’ project reached number one on the Billboard 200 over one year after its initial release.

Laroi performed Stay with Justin Bieber at the 2021 Video Music awards (VMA) and was nominated for Best New Artist and Push Performance of the Year, for his single Without You. In September 2021, Laroi ended his management with Braun and signed with Adam Leber at Rebel Management.

Laroi’s musical journey is on the path to greater things and he considers himself as an ambassador for Australia and wants to show the world what Australia has to offer. Currently the young and dashing singer is dating social media influencer and TikTok star Katarina Deme.

With the corona virus spreading like wildfire and almost every second person on the planet being infected, Laroi in an Instagram post in August last year had mentioned that he was infected by the Wuhan virus and was later cured of it.

Laroi who once couldn’t afford to do his education and live a luxurious life while in Australia, is today at the helm of fashion bigwigs, and sports high end designers like Celine, Louis Vuitton and many others. He has also featured in style editorials for magazines such as Flaunt and on the cover of a host of magazines.

By Verus Ferreira