Do we like The Kid LAROI?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A decent record of giving back and nothing harmful found, but he rarely speaks on bigger issues, so there's little to go on.
Charlton Howard grew up around Waterloo in Sydney, a Kamilaroi kid who found his feet at the Fact Tree Youth Service at 13. He's said the centre helped shape who he is, and it kept him out of trouble during some rough family years.
The rise was fast. He signed with Columbia at 15 and has said he felt like a child at the time, and that fame is both a big blessing and a bit of a curse. He's been fairly frank about the cost of becoming a star that young.
On the harm test, I found nothing. No remarks about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or the planet, no campaigning for anyone nasty, and no run of projects with people who push that stuff. That's partly because he doesn't say much on public issues, so it's a clean pass on a thin record.
There's one legal blot. His former manager's contract dispute went to court in Sydney, and in September 2023 a judge refused his bid to stop his former solicitors acting for that manager. It's an interim ruling in a dispute I couldn't find a final outcome for, so I'm not calling it either way.
The good stuff is real. On a 2022 trip home he gave $100,000 to the Fact Tree Youth Service and shouted everyone Maccas. In 2024 he launched the LAROI Foundation, with headspace as founding partner, to help young people the way his community helped him.
Musically he's still going, scrapping a finished album to remake it into something he called his most personal yet. Fresh, kind and not mixed up in anything grubby, he's an easy one to cheer for.