This weekend Sydney teen rapper The Kid Laroi will take the stage on American TV sketch show Saturday Night Live alongside pop icon Miley Cyrus and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
There’s an improbable sentence if you’ve ever read one.
But it’s perhaps the purest expression yet of the bizarre trajectory the 17-year-old’s charted from a pre-teen dreamer in Sydney’s Waterloo to global hiphop superstar since last year’s breakthrough release, F--- Love.
The Kid Laroi performing on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show earlier this year.Credit:NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Perhaps even more outlandish is the fact Cyrus - despite being the episode’s official music guest - is playing second fiddle. She will perform on a remix of The Kid Laroi’s song Without You, a pained ballad whose viral video features the pair cavorting by a bonfire and a Mack truck, leading YouTube commenters to suggest they were dating despite their 11-year age gap.
In recent months The Kid Laroi, real name Charlton Howard, has already performed the track on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and The Ellen Degeneres Show. It’s currently at #1 on the ARIA singles chart (remarkably marking Cyrus’ first ever #1 ARIA single) and at #23 on the US Billboard Hot 100. But as Lady Gaga’s A Star is Born infamously showed us, performing on SNL indicates another cultural stratosphere altogether.
Even before his SNL debut, Howard’s superstar status has already been cemented. In March, he made a guest appearance on Justin Bieber’s latest chart-dominating album Justice, on the gloomy track Unstable. In recent weeks his Instagram has been peppered with pictures of his new life in studios, on basketball courts, on ski lifts with Cyrus, Bieber and Instagram models.
If it’s all a bit surreal, it’s not entirely unexpected.
Mike Etheridge - breakfast host and content director of ARN’s The Edge 96.1FM, a Western Sydney-based radio station which specialises in hiphop and R&B and were early supporters of The Kid Laroi’s career - says the world-claiming potential was always there.
“Before we even played him on air, I remember sitting at Sony HQ in Sydney and hearing his music for the first time and it was obvious that he was the kind of musician who could take Australian hiphop to a global audience, and he’s gone on to become the first artist to have broken that mould,” he says.
“He totally deserves all his success. In our interviews with him you can hear how dedicated he was to get into the industry, to the point of waiting out the front of US artists’ performances in Sydney and trying to get their phone numbers just so he could get a break.”
Laroi’s SNL spot also comes at a time when the world’s eyes are uncommonly fixed on Australian hiphop.
Just last week popular Western Sydney label Biordi Music - whose roster boasts Cabramatta’s rising R&B superstar Youngn Lipz - signed a partnership deal with Virgin Music that will see its releases pushed globally.
“There is definitely a lot more attention on the incredible talent here in Australia now more than ever,” says Lowkee, founder and owner of Biordi Music.
“Artists like The Kid Laroi and Youngn Lipz who have such universal sounds have been able to grab the attention of audiences across the globe.
“Being one of the biggest shows in the world, Laroi’s appearance on SNL will definitely bring more attention to other Australian artists who are making waves across the world and we’re excited to be able to push the talent forward.”
Etheridge says Laroi’s SNL spot is “a massive moment for Australian hiphop”, one that further legitimises the unprecedented attention on the local scene.
“There has been, unfairly, a stigma around Aussie hiphop artists locally,” he says. “But [The Kid Laroi’s success] will pave the way for others in the industry here to finally be taken seriously.”
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Robert Moran is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
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The Kid Laroi’s SNL debut a ‘massive moment’ for local hiphop - Sydney Morning Herald
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