Louis King Johnson, Jr. (born December 27, 1987), better known by his stage name King Louie (or King L), is an American rapper from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Spin Magazine ''Spin'' (stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012. Histor ...

attributed King Louie as being one of the Chicago rappers who made Chicago the "hottest hip-hop" scene in 2012.

Early life

King Louie was born Louis King Johnson Jr. in the Eastside of

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on December 27, 1987. He attended

Hyde Park Academy High School Hyde Park Academy High School (formerly known as Hyde Park High School and Hyde Park Career Academy) is a public 4–year high school located in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1863, Hyd ...

for a while before graduating from

alternative school An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. Such schools offer a wide range of philosophies and teaching methods; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientati ...

Career

After attending high school, King Louie began building a following through one-on-one mixtapes. He would hand out CDs at bus stops and parties. King Louie released his debut mixtape entitled ''Boss Shit'' in September 2007, and the next year released his second mixtape ''Cloud 9'' in December 2009. However, his career was put on hold after he was hit by a car. He was hospitalized with both his legs broken with various other injuries and had to learn to walk again after his injuries were healed. He later returned to music, releasing a series of mixtapes that he made available online. Songs from his releases received regular air time, including his song "Too Cool" which was placed in regular rotation at

WGCI-FM WGCI-FM (107.5 MHz) is an urban contemporary radio station that is licensed to Chicago, Illinois, serving the Chicago metropolitan area and Northwest Indiana. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia (formerly known as Clear Channel Communicat ...

. To promote his mixtapes, King Louie launched a series of music videos on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. His first video was for the song ''I'm Arrogant'' which was the lead track from his 2010 mixtape ''Man Up, Band Up''. He released additional music videos and quickly grew a large following. It was his promotional methods on YouTube that helped him be one of the newer Chicago rappers to get noticed nationally. In 2012, during a trip to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, King Louie met and signed with Epic Records. While on his trip,

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

's record label

GOOD Music GOOD Music (also known simply as GOOD, stylized as G.O.O.D. Music; a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams) is an American record label founded by rapper Kanye West in 2004. The label signed an exclusive long-term worldwide label agreement with t ...

released a remix of a song by Chicago hip-hop artist Chief Keef. During the release, West took time to mention numerous other up and coming artists, including King L. King Louie was later quoted on MTV's

Sucker Free ''Sucker Free'', known as ''Sucker Free Daily'' on weekdays and then ''Sucker Free Countdown'' on Sundays, is MTV2's sole hip-hop video block. Previously, ''Sucker Free'' aired weekdays for one hour, then eventually sporadically until the week le ...

program that he was shocked and not aware that West was a fan. He would later appear on West's ''

Yeezus ''Yeezus'' is the sixth studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West. It was released on June 18, 2013, through Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. West gathered a number of artists and close collaborators for the production, ...

'', performing a verse and the hook on the track "Send It Up". He was shot in the head in Chicago on December 23, 2015, and survived the shooting.

Discography

* ''Boss Shit'' (2007) * ''Cloud 9'' (2008) * ''Man Up Band Up'' (2010) * ''More Boss Shit'' (2011) * ''Chiraq Drillinois'' (2011) * ''Hardbody The Mixtape with Bo$$ Who & Sno Boy'' (2011) * ''#ManUpBandUp Pt.1'' (2011) * ''Man Up Band Up 2'' (2011) * ''The Motion Picture'' (2012) * ''Showtime'' (2012) * ''Drilluminati'' (2012) * ''March Madness'' (2013) * ''Jeep Music'' (2013) * ''Drilluminati 2'' (2013) * ''Soprano'' (2014) * ''Tony'' (2014) * ''Drilluminati 3: God of Drill'' (2015) * ''6 God Tony'' (2015) * ''Play Dat Again'' (2015) * ''Featuring Tony'' (2016) * ''Tony 2'' (2016) * ''Life With Louie'' (2022)

Guest appearances

References

External links