{"id":294494,"date":"2023-02-02T11:01:29","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T11:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.co.uk\/?p=294494"},"modified":"2023-03-22T16:46:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T16:46:19","slug":"renee-rapp-im-not-afraid-of-what-people-say-to-me-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/amplify\/renee-rapp-im-not-afraid-of-what-people-say-to-me-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"Rene\u00e9 Rapp: “I\u2019m not afraid of what people say to me anymore\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sex Lives of College Girls star on her Beyonc\u00e9 dream, disrupting Hollywood, and refusing to hold back. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

WORDS BY ZOYA RAZA-SHEIKH<\/strong>
\nPHOTOGRAPHY BY NICK WALKER<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Rene\u00e9 Rapp really doesn\u2019t fucking care, not anymore. The 23-year-old artist is lounging in a swanky high-rise London office room, donning a sand-coloured Ganni jacket, as her Pret vanilla oat latte order comes through. \u201cI’m trying to get my shit together,\u201d she confides, smiling. Rapp\u2019s quick-fire humour is a far cry from the queer heartbreak and coming-of-age realisations lamented in her debut EP, Everything to Everyone, but hints at how switched on the young rising star is. And as the singer-songwriter\u2019s string of accolades – a National High School Musical Theatre award at 18 to making her Broadway mark a year later – have proved, her prolific turn is hard-earned and, well, unstoppable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On her seven-track release, Rapp mixes emotively charged ballads and powerhouse tunes as if she were creating a fan-curated playlist; pleasing, playful, and making a point. Topline track Too Well is a sparkly, dainty pop beat with forward-first melodies, while banger-meets-ballad In The Kitchen takes a leaf out of Frank Ocean\u2019s book, hoping to leave you reeling and devastated. However, Rapp\u2019s on-the-scene arrival doesn\u2019t end just there. As one of the leading faces of HBO\u2019s cult TV series Sex Lives of College Girls and a notable name reprising the musical role of Mean Girls\u2019 Regina George, Rapp is showcasing her talents as a triple threat, while proving her worth isn\u2019t measured by how of herself she can give away.<\/span><\/p>\n

Above anything else, Rapp considers herself a musician. \u201cI don’t feel as confident when I act or when I’m doing Broadway. It scares the shit out of me. I don’t want to be seen as an actor \u2014 I want to be seen as a musician,” she tells GAY TIMES. And, listening to Rapp\u2019s tracks – released or not – it can feel like you\u2019re eavesdropping on a confessional conversation. \u201cYour boyfriend’s in the bathroom and I’m holding your hand \/ I wonder if he notices the things that I can,\u201d she sorrowfully sings on What Can I Do, her first-ever queer song. While Rapp\u2019s solo project only landed late last year, the North Carolina actor made a habit of maintaining career paths that never strayed too far from the music industry. \u201cMusic is what I love and gravitate toward most. Once I knew what I wanted to do, I never thought I would act in this capacity,\u201d she shares.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Growing up in the Hollywood machine, Rapp set her targets early, particularly the dream of becoming the next global trailblazer. \u201cI’m a very goal-oriented person, so when something didn’t fit into the mould of wanting to be Beyonc\u00e9 by 18, I was really overwhelmed,\u201d she says. While Rapp hasn\u2019t quite retraced the steps of the Texan superstar, the singer has begun to make waves of her own. Stepstoning across Broadway, TV to music, with the support of her \u201cgood team\u201d, the 23-year-old has begun using the industries around her to realise her dream. \u201cI’ve been very judgmental of any moves that I’ve made career-wise, and recently I’ve learned to trust the people around me who don’t make me feel like shit, because I’ve definitely had my run of the mill of that.”<\/p>\n

Rapp\u2019s quick succession through the industry might seem like a stroke of luck, but it has been anything but. Although, she says, it has made her feel a little \u201cspoiled\u201d, a word that regularly crops up in our conversation. \u201cI’ve been putting out music for six months and none of it is probably going to soak in for the next year of my life,\u201d she half-shrugs. \u201cI try, but I buckle down, and go. During my first-ever show in LA, I felt really really good about it. Sometimes it sinks in, sometimes it doesn’t \u2014 I’ll see it all over Twitter, it’ll be fine!\u201d<\/p>\n

And, inevitably our conversation teeters towards social media. A subject that would make most artists squirm, Rapp graciously accepts the change of pace. \u201cBabe, that’s my favourite thing ever. Don’t you worry,\u201d she reassures. In today\u2019s age, if you have plans of becoming a big-name artist, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ll have to sign your soul away to the internet. Fortunately, for Rapp, she has a knack for going viral online. With 1.2 million followers on TikTok, the singer\u2019s account serves as a masterclass of peak Gen Z humour, meme-ified promo reels and queer culture at its best. And, to no surprise, that\u2019s exactly where a couple of Rapp\u2019s most beloved tracks (Too Well and Colorado) have taken off, rivalling one another as fan favourites. \u201cMy favourite track is In The kitchen. But I understand the Colorado and Too Well debate, because, I actually agree with you, I hated Too Well up until a few weeks ago,\u201d Rapp laughs. \u201cThe second I recorded it, I told everybody on my team, ‘This song will never come out’, verbatim. Then, three days before the project was put together, my letter to my A&R was: ‘You better make me like this.'”<\/p>\n

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Rapp\u2019s connection to her small, but mightly, discography has been a conscious decision. Her debut EP, Everything To Everyone, is a succinct, bite-size introduction to her cross-genre pop roots. \u201cI listen mostly to R&B or indie-leaning stuff and Too Well was the song that I felt would perform the best, but it wasn’t the song that I loved the most,\u201d she explains. \u201cFor me, I go based on lyrics \u2014 I’m such a lyric person. Too Well is a melody-based [and] works really well for pop and consumption, but I am a Colorado person through and through.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n