“I Think I Like You Better When You’re Gone” is the best track off of Reneé Rapp’s sophomore album entitled BITE ME, and it’s finally getting a proper marketing push.
Reneé is an artist whose sort of more famous then her music. I absolutely love her voice and a lot of her music, but I believe she’s still exploring her sound and continuing to build a tight-knit fanbase. As a fan myself, I don’t believe she’s fully hit her artistic stride yet because, well, the artistic stride in question is pure unadulterated R&B but we keep getting teased. Reneé sounds best on stripped down, R&B-infused production that lets her passionate and peerless voice riff, run, rasp and recount.
The guitar-tinged record is currently Reneé’s most streamed song on Spotify week over week, and is the 4th single off of the album. It feels reminiscent of the R&B-forward and fan favorite “Tummy Hurts” off her last album Snow Angel, which, powered by a fantastic Coco Jones remix, is the most streamed track off that project. Similarly, it was also single #4. Both songs only received a proper push after fans responded organically months after album release, and now they continue to perform the best on streaming. And yes, I’m very careful about using streams to draw conclusions—data is egregiously and ferociously weaponized by online stans, mostly because it’s consistently taken out of context. But, I think this is a great example of how, with context, streaming data can actually reveal a lot. Walk with me…
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When albums are delivered to labels, they typically indicate a focus track. That’s the track prioritized for placement on key flagship playlists like Today’s Top Hits, Pop Rising, Rap Caviar, RNB X, MINT — these playlists have the largest audiences on the platform in their respective genres. Those tracks are usually the ones that get a music video, late night performances, remixes, radio promotion, a budgeted social media push and more. And because all of those elements directly affect streaming performance, it becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy: if the label puts all their eggs into certain songs’ basket, then those songs will appear the most popular across vanity metrics, and the other tracks will stream less well, “proving” that the priority song is “better” or more aligned with fans when in reality it was orchestrated that way. If you’re put on a playlist with 30 million followers, you’re going to immediately accrue steady streams from those playlist followers. But, by and large, those listeners are more passive than your average listener. No shade, but who listens to Today’s Top Hits if not someone who just wants to hear something in the background? Those streams are less meaningful that the one’s that the deep album cuts are getting. This is a big part of why plastering streaming numbers everywhere as 1:1 indicators of cultural impact or what’s best/most resonant with fans doesn’t tell the full story. And for label teams, using streaming data to make decisions without contextualizing what type of listeners those are is misguided. The context will tell you: the tracks that don’t get pushed but consistently stream as well or better than the ones getting a budget-backed push are clearly the fan favorites. This is why, unless you have a super clear vision, I think artists should opt to drop albums and let the GP decide the single, or be humble and prepared to pivot, like how team Billie Eilish abandoned “Lunch” real quick when they saw “Birds Of A Feather” taking off organically on streaming. I’d say that was a good choice — it’s now her biggest hit to date!
Back to Reneé. In addition to both songs being buoyant, soulful and melancholy guitar-laced anthems, “Tummy Hurts” and “I Think I Like You Better When You’re Gone” share the quality of being the song that fans chose, not the label. And yet, they are the only songs with that particular sound on both of her projects, and she continues to fill her tracklists with (fantastic) Pop-rock music instead. Why? There’s a myriad of reasons why Renee might’ve pursued such a Pop-forward sound over the last three projects. But, ultimately it’s confusing for fans. The online chatter is pretty clear— the people want R&B. Also, her viral covers of “Love” by Keyshia Cole, "Ego” by Beyoncé”, “In Love With Another Man” by Jazmine Sullivan suggest she does too.
Perhaps the super strong performance of her initial very Pop forward singles has her label addicted to replication—stunning Adele-coded piano ballad ”In The Kitchen” and explosive Pop perfection “Too Well” remain her most streamed songs on Spotify to date (behind the Mean Girls powered, heavily promoted “Not My Fault” featuring Megan Thee Stallion). But, again, it feels like a logical fallacy to conclude she should continue releasing that sound simply because they are the most streamed, but I wouldn’t put it past a major label to think with such risk-averse, profit-laced simplicity. However, I suspect there’s another reason for these choices that doesn’t come her label: I think her desire to beat the white-girl-in-R&B-cultural-appropriator allegations has her circling the drain on this whole R&B thing, a evident by her 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
“[Tummy Hurts] was probably the most gratifying to write actually because I grew up idolizing R&B artists. And I was fortunate enough to grow up with friends who played in bands who were playing in church. My idols are Jazmine Sullivan, Beyoncé, Frank Ocean [she has a tattoo of 60:08 on her arm, which is the duration of Frank’s Blonde album], SZA — they have made the biggest impact in my life. There’s a clear and obvious reason: Black people created all of these music genres we’ve just co-opted in a lot of ways…I wanted so badly to do something that was slightly R&B-leaning, but in a way that wasn’t making something my own that is not at all my own, and something that feels authentic. Ultimately, I would love to do a project like that, but it needs to be done well, and I need to put thought into that. Because I think if a white girl does anything that slightly emulates R&B, it’s praised 10 times more than when Black people do it, in general, just because of the way the fucking world works, and it’s shitty in that regard. But yeah, it is something that I want to do so badly, and I will do.”
So basically…RENEÉ RAPP CAN’T MAKE R&B BECAUSE WOKE????
Jk. Honestly, she is 100% right: “Because…if a white girl does anything that slightly emulates R&B, it’s praised 10 times more than when Black people do it.” YES. This is actually exactly what I said in my 2020 viral post about white artists in historically Black genres (that I’m sure she saw- she’s a socially aware Gen-Z gurl and Jacob Collier, PJ Morton and EARTHGANG were in the comments so maybe this is all my fault).
The conclusion from that post wasn’t “white artists should never make R&B or hip-hop,” despite what the angry mob in the comments might think. It wasn’t about the Iggy Azalea’s of the world, who definitely should never make R&B or hip-hop because their approach is minstrelsy, it’s disrespectful, and artists like that should literally never be allowed to take up space in Black genres at all—it’s a lot easier to share and digest that point online. It gets complicated when we’re discussing white artists who can sing or rap down, and/or genuinely make good music that many Black folks love. We still need to be honest about how those artists benefit from being white, even if we like them. Those artists still need to recognize the delicateness of taking up space in a historically Black genre. To me, Reneé is already doing it. I really admire and appreciate her thoughtfulness, which is exactly why she’s the white girl we need to be making R&B.
Trust me when I say you will very rarely catch me declaring any white person NEEDS to do anything besides shut the fuck up, let alone make literally R&B (unless its Ariana Grande, Yebba, JoJo or Teena Marie) but half of the cultural appropriation battle is respecting the genre—a man named me once said in a Tik Tok that you don’t see think pieces about Journals by Justin Bieber because it banged! We are not asking (all) non-Black artists to never make an R&B again. We’re asking them to be mindful of the space they take up in the genre, to understand the gravity and history of R&B, to publicly acknowledge they get twice as far doing half as much and to use this unfair advantage to uplift and spotlight the Black artists that inspire them and/or are overlooked. Just be fucking mindful of why you were invited to the section. So far, Rapp is doing exactly that:
“…[my R&B album] needs to be done well, and I need to put thought into that. Because I think if a white girl does anything that slightly emulates R&B, it’s praised 10 times more than when Black people do it, in general, just because of the way the fucking world works..
In an era of ostensible social consciousness, sometimes non-Black people adopt a broad strokes politic of racial anxiety rather than intentional choices rooted in genuine critical understanding of the complexities of a given issue. I appreciate Rapp’s thoughtfulness, deference, and caution—its refreshing in a world that feels so entitled to profiting off of Black culture while we rarely collect similar dividends. But, I urge Rapp and her team to trust that her fans are ready for her to dive deep into R&B, and to trust that Rapp can navigate this with tact and talent. Until then, the Pop approach—even at its most perfect—will limit her success because its not authentic to her. R&B is.
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