Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard (born 17 August 2003), known professionally as the Kid Laroi (stylised as The Kid LAROI), is an Australian singer, rapper, and songwriter. He was signed with American rapper Lil Bibby's Grade A Productions, in a joint venture with Columbia Records, in 2019. He is best known for his 2021 single "Stay" (with Justin Bieber), which peaked atop the charts in numerous countries including his native Australia, as well as the Canadian Hot 100 and Billboard Hot 100.
His debut mixtape, F*ck Love (2020), charted on US Billboard 200 and peaked atop the ARIA Charts making him the youngest Australian solo act to achieve the latter. It spawned two commercial re-issues; the first, F*ck Love: (Savage), yielded his first hit song, "Without You"—which was later remixed with American singer Miley Cyrus and peaked within the top ten songs of the Billboard Hot 100—while the second, F*ck Love: Over You (2021), yielded "Stay". His debut studio album, The First Time (2023), was supported by the singles "Love Again" and "Too Much" (with Jung Kook and Central Cee). His second album, Before I Forget (2026), peaked among the top five of both the ARIA and Billboard 200.
Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard was born on 17 August 2003 in Waterloo, New South Wales, in the inner south of Sydney. He has one brother, Austin Howard. His father, Nick Howard, briefly pursued a recording career and signed with executive Simon Cowell, but later shifted into production and engineering work for Australian acts such as Bardot and Delta Goodrem. His mother, Sloane Howard, was a talent manager and record executive of Aboriginal and European descent, who once managed Popstars winner Scott Cain. Howard's maternal great-great-grandfather was a part of the Kamilaroi people, who inspired his artistic name "Laroi".
His interest in hip hop music began at an early age when his mother played music around the house from artists like Fugees, 2Pac, Lil Wayne and Kanye West. He later praised West and called his 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak "his favourite of all time". Howard's parents separated when he was four, and at the age of seven he moved to the rural town of Broken Hill, New South Wales together with his mother, brother, grandparents and stepfather. Howard's father was not a consistent force in his life and his stepfather became his father figure as a result. He attended a private school, Sacred Heart Parish School, where he was a house captain and won a speaking award.
After leaving Broken Hill, Howard attended another private school, Sacred Heart College in Adelaide, until they moved back to Sydney in 2017, because Howard was bullied and his mother could not afford the college anymore. In Sydney, Howard attended the Australian Performing Arts Grammar School on a scholarship, but he dropped out midway through year nine to pursue his international career. During this period, his family lived in a Housing Commission building in Redfern.
In 2019, hip-hop podcast I-Heart Radio filmed a documentary about Howard and his friends in Redfern where they describe the area as a "ghetto". Howard detailed his work at building international relationships by waiting outside hotel rooms for popular international artists and find different ways to meet them or get backstage. His efforts paid off when he sent a friend to play his music to Swae Lee in a hotel, which resulted in him meeting Lee and later collaborating with him. His motivation to succeed came from desire to break the cycle of hardship that is common in his community and urge to help his mother through their tough financial situation, so he found a part-time job at a fruit store.
Howard started out recording raps over beats on his mother's phone and uploading them to SoundCloud. In an interview with Triple J, Howard stated that the first rap name he gave himself was "FC6". In 2015, Howard formed the duo "Dream$Team" with Adelaide rapper DJ Marcus Jr. (aka LadyKiller) who became his mentor and promoter as the two recorded songs together and performed to local audiences.
Howard met his future collaborator, producer Khaled Rohaim, at a recording studio in Sydney. Moved by Howard's talent and difficult living situation, Rohaim picked Howard up so they could eat together and record at his rented studio in North Strathfield. Rohaim gave Howard some work writing songs for other artists. In one instance, he wrote a song that featured A Boogie and Howard snuck into the studio so he could meet him, eventually recording a song together.
In 2017, Howard signed a development deal with Sony Music Australia. In the same year he was a co-host at the Fernside Festival hosted by Weave Youth and Community Services.
On 16 August 2018, the day before his 15th birthday, Howard released his debut EP 14 with a Dream, featuring his collaborations with Manu Crooks, B Wise and Miracle. The same month he garnered attention for finishing top five in the Triple J Unearthed High competition with his entry, "Disconnect", submitted just hours before the competition's deadline. In the same year he performed several concerts including his duet with Manu Crook$ at Listen Out Festival, rapping with Tkay Maidza at Triple J's One Night Stand Festival, played at Newtown Festival and supported THEY. He collaborated on a song with Lil Skies who posted a snippet of it on his Instargram. Howard was interviewed by community station FBi Radio, where he expressed his drive and confidence to one day be seen as a peer amongst his idols. When he was asked to name three Australian acts who he thought were going to be future legends, he stated: "I'd have to say... Can it be me? Can I pick myself? I hate to be that guy, but I definitely hope that I'm a legend."
In March 2019, Howard did an in-store meet-and-greet for streetwear brand Street X in Darlinghurst, performing alongside Triple One. In the same year he signed with American rapper Lil Bibby's record label Grade A Productions and Columbia Records. Howard was mentored by American rapper Juice Wrld while Howard supported him on his Australian national tours in 2018 and 2019. Howard lived with Juice Wrld in Los Angeles to learn more about the studio and recording process. He performed at Rolling Loud Festivals in Miami and New York.
2020–2022: F*ck Love, mainstream success with "Stay" and End of the World Tour
On 31 January 2020, Howard released "Diva" featuring Lil Tecca which was accompanied by a Lyrical Lemonade music video directed by Cole Bennett that was released on 1 February. On 22 March, he released "Addison Rae", a song named after the social media personality star of the same name. On 27 March, Howard made a cameo appearance in Lil Mosey's music video for "Blueberry Faygo". On 17 April, he released "Fade Away" with Lil Tjay. On 25 April, he was featured on "Go Dumb" by record producer Y2K also featuring Blackbear, and Bankrol Hayden. On 12 June, he released "Go" featuring Juice Wrld, which was accompanied by a music video directed by Steve Cannon. On 26 June, Howard was featured on Bankrol Hayden's debut studio album Pain Is Temporary, on a remix of "Costa Rica". On 18 July, he released "Tell Me Why", a tribute track to Juice Wrld. Howard revealed the cover art and release date of his mixtape on Twitter the same day. The mixtape was released on 24 July and contains features from Lil Mosey, Corbin, and Juice Wrld. The same day, he released the music video for "Not Fair" featuring Corbin. On 7 August, he released the music video for the song "Selfish". On 28 August, Howard was featured on Internet Money's collective mixtape B4 the Storm on the song "Speak". It was followed by a music video for the song "Wrong" released on 18 September, which was directed by Logan Paul, featured Lil Mosey and starred ex-pornstar Lana Rhoades. On 23 October, Howard released his first single "So Done" from his next project, accompanied by a Lyrical Lemonade music video directed by Cole Bennett. On 30 October, Howard was featured on "My City" by Onefour.