With a rare gift for turning his hometown experiences into natural melodies, Kidd G has found tremendous success by staying true to his roots. As a kid growing up in small-town Georgia, he first started creating his own songs at the age of 15, and soon arrived at a gritty but melodic sound equally inspired by classic country and hip-hop. As he continued exploring his country roots, Kidd G soon came up with “Dirt Road”— a nostalgia-soaked ballad that quickly went viral, its video surpassing 5M YouTube views in little over a month. Naming Hank Williams Jr. among the artists he was raised on, the burgeoning star has now surpassed 1.5M monthly Spotify listeners, and his tracks have seen radio play from KIXX Country Radio in Australia and reached new peaks on highly coveted country playlists including Amazon Music’s ‘Country Heat’ (peaked at No. 2), and Spotify’s ‘Hot Country’ (peaked at No. 3). Now, with his first ever headlining tour under his belt and the announcement of his partnership with Big Machine Label Group’s The Valory Music Co., Kidd G wrapped 2021 on an even higher note than he started it on.
Born Gabriel Horne and raised in the town of Hamilton (population 1,130), Kidd G got his start singing at the age of 11 with the full support of his music-loving family (his great uncle played bass in Fleetwood Mac, and both his parents are hobbyist singers). Within several years he’d set up a makeshift studio in his bedroom and started recording with his friends, partly mining inspiration from new age rappers like Juice WRLD. One of his first viral moments was his video, “Letter to Juice,” a minute-long verse over a melancholic beat paying homage to the late artist. But while early tracks like his debut single, “Sorry,” lean toward traditional hip-hop, Kidd G later brought an element of old-school country into his songwriting. “I love country because it feels so natural to me, and you can really tell stories in the songs,” he notes. As he continued posting his music on SoundCloud, Kidd G soon amassed a dedicated following undeniably drawn to his down-home charm and the honest detail of his lyrics, The New York Times dubbing him a “knockout country-rap crossover.” With the arrival of “Dirt Road,” that following grew exponentially as Kidd G saw the track gain serious traction on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and land on coveted Spotify playlists like “Fresh Finds Country” and “Next from Nashville.”
Thanks to his deliberately laid-back, hometown influence and approach, all of Kidd G’s music unfolds with a carefree energy that lightens any mood. “A lot of my songs come from me just getting stuff off my mind, and I hope it helps other people get through the day and get through their problems— maybe make life a little easier for them,” he says. But as Kidd G reveals, the ultimate test of a song’s power invariably happens in his hometown. “Most of the time when I’m making a song, I’m thinking about how my friends will react to it,” he says. “That’s when I know something’s good— when I’m working on it and I start thinking, ‘I can’t wait to get back home and show this to my friends.’” And as he looks to the future, Kidd G plans to maintain that hometown spirit while massively expanding his musical horizons. “My goal is to get a platinum record,” he says, “reach No. 1 on Billboard, sell out arenas, and perform in front of millions of people.”
