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The Kid Laroi becomes youngest ever solo artist to top Aria charts

First Nations rapper The Kid Laroi has become the youngest solo artist ever to hit number one on the Aria album charts.

The Sydney-born 17-year-old reached the top position at 5pm on Saturday for his album F*ck Love (Savage), tipping Bluey the Album off number one.

In a statement issued through Sony Music Entertainment late on Saturday, The Kid Laroi described the achievement as “insane”.

“#1 in my own country means more to me than anything in the world,” he said.

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“Thank you to everyone who has supported me and been with me through all of this. I love you all and I can’t wait to see you all again soon.”

Sony’s Australia/New Zealand chairman and CEO, Denis Handlin, said the company had been watching the young rapper (real name Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard) since he was 12 years old.

“Laroi is the real deal,” Handlin said. “We will give him all the support in the world and at the same time, get out of the way so that his brilliance gives him the creative wings to fly.”

The Kid Laroi’s success has been meteoric. On 12 June 2020, his Go collaboration with Juice Wrld – released some six months after the US rapper died of an opioid overdose – became his first single to hit the US Billboard Hot 100.

His debut mixtape F*ck Love peaked at number three in the US, prompting both Elton John and Drake to predict that the young rapper would go far in 2021.

The mixtape has been streamed more than 1bn times globally. The F*ck Love (Savage) album went gold on 30 January while the hit single Without You went platinum.

Laroi now has three platinum Aria singles (So Done, Go and Without You) and five gold Aria singles (Diva, Let Her Go, Wrong, Tell Me Why and Addison Rae).

The teenager, who was born in Redfern and spent part of his childhood in Broken Hill, is now Los Angeles-based, where he lives with his mother and younger brother.