If you've checked out hip-hop Twitter in the last few weeks, you've surely noticed a trend beginning to form. Some of the biggest rap adjacent accounts on the microblogging website have been keeping track of 17-year-old artist The Kid LAROI's streaming stats, reporting on when he passes other famed rappers on Spotify. In the last thirty days, the youngster has surpassed Lil Uzi Vert and, most recently, Kendrick Lamar in monthly listeners.
While some have theorized that the artist's label has been faking his streams, quoting J. Cole's verse on "a lot" to back up their claims, The Kid LAROI admittedly has a huge fanbase of Gen-Z listeners, so it's likely that these numbers are legitimate. LAROI joked about the rumors that he's frauding the industry by mentioning his mentor Lil Bibby.
"@lilbibby_ STOP BUYING ME STREAMS," wrote the teenager in a comment on Instagram, clearly seeing all of the chatter around his numbers. Lil Bibby responded, "I wish I knew how to do that sh*t, I would have bought myself some."
Their banter signals the fact that they're well aware that people are onto them, but it also shows that they don't care at all about how people are perceiving LAROI's success.
The Kid LAROI was part of the latest season of On The Come Up, where he spoke about Juice WRLD's mentorship and his pre-fame life in Australia. Watch that below.