Kendrick Lamar will certainly be humbled after learning that 17-year-old Aussie rapper The Kid LAROI has one-upped his Spotify game.
Aussie hip-hop saw its first major moment of 2021 overnight, with teen sensation The Kid LAROI surpassing Kendrick Lamar in monthly Spotify listens.
Just hours ago, the 17-year-old Sydney rapper clocked in at 25,569,361 monthly listeners, tipping over Lamar’s count of 24,470,054 listeners.
LAROI’s numbers are not that surprising when you consider his rapid rise to stardom. Relocating from his childhood Waterloo residence to Los Angeles, only to be mentored by the late Juice WRLD, the rapper spent 2020 dropping a number of solid tracks off his debut album F*CK LOVE. He also wasted no time jumping on a heap of collaborations as well, with Tokyo’s Revenge, Bankrol Hayden, and fellow Sydney collective OneFour.
It was only a matter of time before the 17-year-old started playing with the big boys, and he’s achieved it all before he can legally drink.
Rising rapper @TheKidLaroi trends on Twitter after people discovered he has more monthly listeners on Spotify than Kendrick Lamar. pic.twitter.com/C4LkszA31J
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 11, 2021
LAROI started trending on Twitter when listeners noticed the massive milestone. The achievement didn’t come without its criticism, however, with some claiming that the teen is an industry plant or is somehow cheating the Spotify algorithm to gain more listeners.
As much as that is just conjecture, who cares if he’s scamming Spotify. It’s not like Spotify has ever scammed anyone before…
https://twitter.com/theyhatesilver/status/1348758073201065984
LAROI’s short 13 days of the New Year have been nothing short of sensational, with the teen’s debut album jumping a solid 22 spots up the Billboard 200, breaking the top 10 on the UK singles charts with his track WITHOUT YOU, and gaining some notable Instagram follows from Justin Bieber and Post Malone.
oh the things id do for these collabs
— James (@jamesbayly_) January 10, 2021
It’s only about two weeks since the year started, but The Kid LAROI has already started his 2021 campaign on a very good foot, no doubt leaving Lamar with only one thing on his mind – DAMN.
