The Kid Laroi Knew He Made It When Justin Bieber Slid Into His DMs
Two years ago, The Kid Laroi was a sixteen-year-old teenager trying to break into the American music scene. Now, he’s a radio darling, scoring big with hit songs “Without You” and “Stay,” featuring Justin Bieber. What happened in the last few years? Justin Bieber slid into his DMs, and the rest is history.
Justin Bieber inspired a seven-year-old The Kid Laroi
The Kid Laroi says the 2011 Justin Bieber documentary Never Say Never inspired him to start creating music.
He told Variety, “I remember when I was seven years old, and my older cousin took me to go watch the ‘Never Say Never’ documentary with her when it came out in the movie theater,”
The rapper continued, “I didn’t really know a lot about Justin Bieber. I was like seven years old, but I remember after watching that movie, I was like, ‘Yo, this is the coolest kid in the f***ing world.”
Bieber directly contacted him by sliding into his DMs. The Kid Laroi detailed their first interaction saying, “he DMed me, and he said, ‘You got the sauce.’ I responded like, ‘Thank you, I’m a big fan.’ He just liked my message, and that was it for a month or two.”
Luckily, things didn’t end there. The Kid Laroi continues,” then he just hit me up like, ‘Hey, I think I have a song for us to do.’ He sent me his number, and I texted him while I was in the shower. I remember being like, ‘Oh f***I hope he doesn’t Facetime me or anything while I’m in the shower.’ He did.”
They are now good friends who play basketball together every Sunday.
The Kid Laroi’s mentor was Juice WRLD
Although he always looked up to Justin Bieber, another superstar served as The Kid Laroi’s first mentor. The babyfaced rapper started writing at the age of 15. In 2018 he was discovered by Chicago-based rapper Lil Bibby after becoming a finalist in Triple J’s Unearthed competition. Lil Bibby is known for starting the label Grade A Productions and signing late rapper Juice WRLD.
The Kid Laroi opened for Juice WRLD during his 2018 and 2019 Australian tours. He refers to Juice Wrld as a mentor and says they formed a powerful bond, “First and foremost, he was just a really good dude. In the short time that we knew each other, he gave me a lot of the game on the industry and how some stuff works that I still keep in mind today.”
Juice WRLD tragically died in 2019 from an accidental overdose.
Grammy nominations and industry success
At only 18 years old, The Kid Laroi has a career many industry veterans would envy. He has three top 10 hits on the Billboard 100, including his collaboration with Bieber. “Stay” topped the chart for seven consecutive weeks. The hit song also helped The Kid Laroi break a record, becoming the youngest Australian artist to have a Billboard No. 1 song.
“Stay” also became the fastest song to reach a billion streams on Spotify.
Will the magic streak continue with one of the music industry’s top honors? He’s nominated for Best New Artist at the 64th Grammy Awards. During an interview with radio station Z100, when asked what it was like to hear the nomination, he shared, “It was wild. Just wild. I still can’t believe it!”
The Grammys will air on CBS Sunday, Apr. 3.
His highly anticipated debut album KIDS ARE GROWING UP is currently set for a May 2022 release.
