Taylor Swift Dominated But Meet The 16-year-old Sydney Rapper Who's Smashing Global Charts

If you haven't heard of The Kid LAROI yet we're sure that's about to change. The 16-year-old Sydney rapper has just dropped his debut album and it's achieving big things around the globe. Here's what you need to know:

Wait a minute, that name sounds familiar to me... 

You might remember The Kid LAROI (real name Charlton Howard) from triple j's Unearthed High competition back in 2018 when he was 14. 

What's he been up to since? 

Well, in the two years since being a finalist in the competition, Howard's achieved a lot. Now living in Los Angeles, the 16-year-old found a mentor in Juice WRLD after touring with rapper in Australia in 2019.

Prior to Juice WRLD's death in late 2019, the American rapper recorded a verse for Howard's track Go while the pair were in Greece. It's since amassed over 16.5 million plays on YouTube alone. The Kid LAROI appeared on Juice WRLD's Hate The Other Side alongside Marshmello and Polo G too, which has picked up over 44 million streams on Spotify since its release.

Howard also joined Columbia Records with a worldwide deal after a three year development stint.

What's The Kid LAROI up to now? 

Well, so glad you asked - he's currently appearing on charts all over the world with his debut album, Fuck Love, which dropped on 26 July. 

But how well is it doing? 

In its debut week, Fuck Love has landed at #3 on the ARIA Albums Chart in Australia, #5 in New Zealand, #10 in Ireland, #12 in the UK and #38 in Belgium. 

Among its most significant placements though is #8 on the US Billboard Charts, seeing Howard sitting in the top 10 with Taylor Swift, Logic, his mentor Juice WRLD, the Hamilton cast recording, Gunna, Lil Baby, Post Malone and Harry Styles. 

That's a lot of streams then, right? 

It certainly is. According to Billboard, for Fuck Love "launches with 40,000 equivalent album units earned" and "of that sum, 33,000 are in SEA units (equaling 49.39 million on-demand streams of the albums songs)".

Check out Fuck Love below.