NEW YORK (AP) — Reneé Rapp was clear on her intentions for her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” from the start.
“I wanted to love this,” Rapp says. “I wanted to be able to walk away from this and be so proud of myself and impressed, no matter what anybody else thought.” Her first album, 2023's “Snow Angel, ” had been an experiment in figuring out her sound (a mix of pop, R&B and heart-wrenching ballads), and assembling a collection of songs that worked together. This album, out Friday, offered the chance to do it again, with an eye toward the way her life had changed in the intervening years.
“That intention, and also wanting to prove it to myself, was really grueling,” Rapp told The Associated Press. “And also really fun.”
The writing process gave Rapp, 25, an outlet to work through the burnout-inducing whirlwind that was her career in those two years. Uncharacteristically restrained in its vocal styling, the album's lead single, “Leave Me Alone,” is strikingly open — clever zingers allude to her departure from HBO’s “Sex Lives of College Girls,” the media frenzy that surrounded her turn as Regina in the 2024 remake of “Mean Girls,” and the external pressure she felt to put out more music after the positive reception of “Snow Angel.” Basically, anything that's been said about her in the last few years? She reframes it, poking fun at her reputation and the industry.
“Leave Me Alone” felt like a proper introduction to the album, Rapp says, and “Bite Me” — both a warning and a tease — the appropriate title. Paris Hilton and Monica Lewinsky were among the famous faces that teased the album upon its announcement, donning merch emblazoned with the title in bold print. Rapp herself posed in front of a newsstand filled with mock tabloids depicting her as a diva, concealed behind big sunglasses and a fur coat, to promote the second single, “Mad.” (“That's a Rapp!” the headline read.)
“It really feels just like a time capsule of those two years of my life, a lot having to do with the business and the industry and people’s expectations of me,” Rapp says of the album. “And then also me wanting things for myself and being confused where those two roads diverge.”
Rapp's confidence and humor is evident across the album, just as it is on stage — “I write lyrics in the way that I talk,” she says. Many of the tracks tackle the destabilizing emotions that accompany the beginning and end of relationships, whether platonic or romantic, and how her now-very public career has amplified the challenges of creating, and maintaining, those connections.
“I’m so surrounded all the time, but I feel so lonely, and it feels really heavy and isolating. And I think a lot of that is just being an artist. And I also think a lot of that is just like the nature of like the business, for better or for worse," she says. The can't-be-bothered attitude heard on “Leave Me Alone” is countered by the ache of “That's So Funny,” which recounts the end of a deeply affecting, but ultimately toxic friendship in Rapp's signature soaring vocals.
That doesn't mean Rapp isn't also having fun. The cheeky “At Least I'm Hot” features Rapp's girlfriend, the singer and guitarist Towa Bird. “I love when artists give you a clue into their lives, and the people who make their lives full,” Rapp said. The track, she says, is also just funny: “Who better to put on that than like the funniest person alive?”
The album's mix of emotions — heartache followed by the rush of a new crush, the impostor syndrome that accompanies the thrill of success — is something the AP Breakthrough Entertainer alum has been exploring since her 2022 EP, “Everything to Everyone.” She wants listeners to feel the conflict, too — and know that they aren't alone in experiencing it.
In June, Rapp served as a grand marshal of the World Pride parade in Washington, D.C., alongside Laverne Cox and Deacon Maccubbin. “It can be difficult to feel resilient and empowered as a queer person,” Rapp said. “Because World Pride was in D.C., I was like, well, I can’t not be there.” She recalled a conversation with Cox, who dispelled some of Rapp's fears of coming off as self-important in the role by emphasizing the power of showing up, and showing face. “Right now, when everything is so under attack, which it pretty much always is, it feels like that’s the time to be really loud.”
Rapp will launch the North American leg of her “Bite Me” tour at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater in September before making stops at New York's Madison Square Garden and as a headliner at the Toronto stop of the All Things Go Festival. She'll tour Europe in March.
As she readies for fans to hear the album, she hopes it offers them some reprieve. “I hope that the weight of the world doesn’t feel as massive,” she said. “It’s really easy to obsess over everything and be constantly lost in your head.”
Giving them a glimpse into hers, she hopes, is empowering — and fun: “It’s just, it feels like a big party that like everybody wants in on.”
Elise Ryan, The Associated Press
