PRIVATE Lyrics – The Kid LAROI | from “BEFORE I FORGET”

The Kid LAROI’s unraveling the quiet storms inside on BEFORE I FORGET, his third full-length dropping January 9 via Columbia Records, and “PRIVATE” slips in like a late-night text you shouldn’t send—intimate, aching, and impossible to unhear.

This third-track stunner, penned solo by Charlton Howard himself, leans into his emo-rap sweet spot: hazy trap beats laced with acoustic whispers and those signature Auto-Tuned sighs that make vulnerability feel like a velvet punch. Clocking in around 2:44, it’s got that stripped-back pulse—think soft hi-hats over fingerpicked guitars, building to a chorus swell that hits like summer rain on a breakup drive.

Thematically, it’s a raw autopsy of fame’s collateral: did we rush in, or did spilling our guts online torch it all? That chorus hook—“Next time, I’m keepin’ it private”—lands like a vow, unpacking the shared hurt in your eyes, the unfair spotlight twisting good into gossip. It’s not just breakup fodder; it’s LAROI owning how public eyes strain what’s sacred, with verses that nod to drunk dials and unhealable words. Dropped as track three, it sets the album’s confessional tone, teased in snippets that had fans dissecting every bar on TikTok days before launch.

BEFORE I FORGET lives up to its name—a 15-track memory lane etched in neon, pulling from scrapped sessions post his 2023 The First Time era. It’s got the breezy opener “ME + YOU,” the reflective “JULY,” gut-wrenchers like “COME DOWN” and “A PERFECT WORLD,” plus collabs firing on “RATHER BE” with Lithe, Andrew Aged’s edge on a mid-album cut, and Clara La San adding soul to the close. No overarching gimmick, just Howard unpacking fame’s blur on real connections—love lost, lessons kept—over 40 minutes of genre-blending heat that nods to Post Malone melancholy without aping it. The tracklist billboard reveal on January 4 had X in a frenzy, and with signed CDs up for pre-order, it’s clear Columbia’s betting big on this as his glow-up statement.

At 22, LAROI’s hitting that post-teen reckoning hard—fresh off sold-out Aussie runs and a Vegas residency that blended tears with mosh pits, he’s trading viral hooks for deeper dives. The Sydney kid who blew up off “STAY” with Bieber is owning the scars now, therapy-fueled and tour-tested, proving he’s not just surviving the spotlight; he’s rewriting the script one hushed bar at a time.

Dive into the PRIVATE lyrics below and unpack its raw narrative. Don’t miss other BEFORE I FORGET tracks for more of The Kid LAROI’s introspective emo-rap vibes.