Hotboii

Javarri Latre Walker was born on June 13, 2000, in Orlando, Florida, growing up in the Pine Hills neighborhood on the westside as one of 17 siblings.[3] He listened to artists such as Lil Wayne, Rich Homie Quan and Kodak Black.[2] He began rapping at the age of seven and began releasing music in 2016 with the help of his mother,[4][5] beginning by uploading music onto SoundCloud and YouTube.[6]

Just before his incarceration, he had begun to receive some attention locally for his song "Switcharoo".[5] After his release in 2018 he began to put out more singles, publishing his first music video that September for "Life of a Dog".[7] In 2019 he released the single "YG's", a "detailed walk through [his] experiences and survival tactics in the street" that quickly gained traction.[2][8] He began 2020 by securing features from Stunna 4 Vegas ("4PF Like Baby") and Rylo Rodriguez ("Sick of Cell") before releasing his breakout single "Don't Need Time" on April 27.[5] Written in memory of his recently deceased friend Wolph, the piano-driven track was notably slower-paced and more self-reflective than his previous songs.[5] In five months it accumulated more than nine million streams on Spotify and 24 million YouTube views on its music video, which was shot at Wolph's funeral.[5] On August 25, a remix featuring Lil Baby was released along with a new music video that addressed the theme of police brutality following the killing of another one of Hotboii's friends, Salaythis Melvin, by an Orange County sheriff's deputy earlier that month.[5][9][10]

Hotboii released his first mixtape, Kut Da Fan On, on May 22, 2020.[4] It included previous hits such as "Don't Need Time", "YG's", and "Goat Talk" as well as features from Plies, LPB Poody, Rico Cartel and 438 Tok. Some of the songs were written during his time served in the juvenile detention program.[11] Pitchfork noted how he "came into his own by polishing his blend of painful street tales and witty punchlines" on the project,[12] while Audiomack called it "41 hyper-realistic and melodic minutes of contemporary hip-hop goodness."[11] After releasing more music videos, he secured a feature from Polo G on "Goat Talk 2", a followup to the original which had by then become one of his most popular songs.

On December 11, 2020, he released his debut album Double O Baby with features from Lil Mosey, Toosii and Pooh Shiesty.[13] Expanding on the theme from his last project, songs like "Police Brutality", "Malcolm X" and "Problems (No Rights)" addressed problems facing the African-American community in the context of the recent George Floyd protests and specifically his friend Salaythis Melvin's killing by police.[14] Elevator Mag praised his "masterful flow and soul-baring storytelling" on the album.[13] Later that month he performed on the Rolling Loud 'Home for the Holidaze' livestream headlined by Rick Ross.[15]

Walker has a son.[6] Walker has symptoms of ADHD.[2]

• Hotboii at AllMusic