Why It’s Totally Fine if Reneé Rapp Doesn’t Make R&B Music

Reneé Rapp loves R&B. She’s said it over and over again, and if you’ve been following her current tour, you’ve heard it, too—in her voice, her setlist, and her covers. Over the past few weeks, Rapp has performed tracks by some of R&B’s finest: Alicia Keys’ “Unthinkable,” SZA’s “Good Days,” and Rihanna’s “James Joint.” Her tone, phrasing, and delivery all drip with soul, and fans have definitely noticed.

“Reneé Rapp girl, I know what you're doing,” one TikTok user, DJ CHVMELEON, said in a video. “I see you soft-launching this R&B pivot. She think we don't know what she doing. We've been waiting for this pivot. Girl, I'm all the way here for it. Finally, in fact — the voice is too good.”

The sentiment that Rapp is “too good” not to make an R&B album has dominated stan X and TikTok over the past month. But Rapp herself isn’t interested in claiming the genre. In a recent outing, she addressed the conversation head-on.

“Any non-Black person that makes anything that can be deemed remotely soulful or R&B… historically will always be praised and uplifted much more than people who are actually Black and make R&B music,” she said. “Even outside of music, the idea of white mediocrity will always prevail. I'm not calling myself that. However, I am saying that it just inherently has been more celebrated because it is more palatable.”

She went further, clarifying her stance and her respect for the genre’s roots.

“Every single one of my most important inspirations are Black men and women who are in R&B or in rock music, or in any fucking genre of music. I would never consider an album of mine at any point to be R&B because, in my opinion, R&B is just tied to something much more culturally significant than me.”

While some fans applauded her honesty, others missed the point entirely, and there were plenty of commenters who felt compelled to defend the boundaries of the genre itself. So if Rapp never makes an R&B album, that’s fine—here’s why.

@kendallxcel Renee Rapp Goes Through An R&B Song Rampage On The Terrell Show #reneerapp #renee #rnb #music #4upage ♬ original sound - Kendallxcel

There are already incredible Black R&B artists who deserve our attention

We already have an abundance of Black R&B artists, from Normani to Coco Jones to Leon Thomas, who deserve far more recognition, budget, and streams than they’re currently getting. As @barak_a_ put it in a TikTok dissecting the discourse, there’s already other white artists who have done this and then moved on.

“As Black people, I want us to all sit down and discuss genuinely, what is it that we want?” he said. “Why, every single time, is there this need to have white people at the cookout to validate your Blackness? Because just yesterday, and even today, we’re talking about how Southern Fried Rice is problematic because it centers a non-Black person in a Black space.”

He continued:

“You can listen to when Pink was pretending to be Black. You can listen to Gwen Stefani in her cultural appropriation era. You can listen to Blackiana [ariana grande]. You can listen to Justin Bieber. You can listen to Justin Timberlake. You can listen to all these people. We talk about how people like Post Malone and Miley Cyrus used the culture when it was good for them and then tossed it away. What will happen if, like, Reneé Rapp makes one of the best R&B albums of all time, and then she tosses it away because she’s not interested in it anymore?”

She’s in her transitional era—and that’s OK

Also, Rapp still early in her musical evolution. Her pop-rock catalog feels like a natural extension of her roots in the actress-to-pop-star pipeline that’s as old as Disney Channel itself. Yeah, she’s making kind of basic pop, but tbh that’s what she should be doing.

Like Miley Cyrus, Ashley Tisdale, or even early Demi Lovato before her, Rapp’s in her transitional era. She’s figuring out her sound and her audience in real time. Because of how she was introduced to the world through acting (The Sex Lives of College Girls, Mean Girls), this in-between stage makes sense. Every pop girl has to crawl through a few radio-friendly hits before she gets to her Bangerz moment.

Respecting the genre is a flex in itself

There’s something admirable about knowing when not to claim a sound. Rapp’s willingness to admire R&B from a distance is just so self-aware, and we need more of this. Not every soulful vocalist has to be an R&B artist, and not every artist who loves the genre has to wear it as an identity.

Rapp’s voice is big enough, soulful enough, and distinctive enough to flirt with R&B influences without claiming them. And if she chooses to stay pop or invent her own hybrid lane, that’s fine, too.

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