Grade A/Columbia17-year-old singer and rapper Charlton Howard, better known to his millions of fans as The Kid Laroi, is celebrating the fact that his mixtape F*k Love (Savage) has just hit number-one on the charts in his native Australia. Even with the whole world embracing his music, Laroi says it's even more important to know that his home country's got his back.
"I think it's just super-beautiful when you have your own people and your own country behind you," he tells ABC Audio. "I feel like it's a whole different feeling because it's like, 'O.K., people like me are supporting me.' It hits way different."
Plus, Laroi loves being a role model for aspiring Australian rappers.
"My whole thing is, I love inspiring people and especially young kids," he notes. "When I was growing up, I never had anybody from Australia that was big internationally to look up to –I never had that. So my whole thing is like, I wanted to be that guy for kids."
In the U.S., F*k Love (Savage) debuted in the top 10, thanks to the singles "So Done" and "Without You." Both those songs are about breakups, and Laroi says he's glad he's got music to help him express his frustration, sadness and everything else.
"That's one of the whole reasons why I started the whole music thing," he tells ABC Audio. "It's like, I look at it like a therapy session."
"I don't like talking about my feelings, you know, just in conversation, it's super-awkward and it makes me feel really uncomfortable," he admits. "I'm not very good at it. So music is a way for me to express those feelings without keeping it in and feeling weird about it."
By Andrea Dresdale
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