Reneé Rapp is back with her first new music since the Mean Girls movie — a biting new song called “Leave Me Alone,” the first single off her forthcoming album Bite Me.
It's a brash, fun, pop hit that conjures up P!nk-esque 2000s nostalgia (we see you “Mizundastood”) and a dash of Olivia Rodrigo. And somewhat controversially, Rapp references her abbreviated time on the popular and recently cancelled HBO Max show The Sex Lives of College Girls.
Below, we explain Reneé Rapp's “Leave Me Alone” lyrics in the context of her history with Sex Lives of College Girls.
What did Reneé Rapp say on her new song “Leave Me Alone”?
“Leave Me Alone” is an anthem for doing whatever the f*ck you want, and in it, Rapp sings about being “a bad girl but a good kisser" who avoids her label and other responsibilities to prioritize having fun. Valid! “Can I tell you a secret, I'm so sick of it all,” she expresses.
That brings us to the lines that reference Sex Lives of College Girls: “Sign a hundred NDAs but I still say something / I took my sex life with me, now the show ain't f*ckin.'" In the clean version, the line reads as an even more brutal insult, swapping the f-word for “now the show ain't nothin'.” It's a clear assertion that the show suffered after she left — and, well, she's not wrong.
In the music video, she fights her “lookalikes and opps,” as she clarified on Instagram. A fake NDA is signed, “YOURWORSTNIGHTMARE” with the address as “gof*ckyourselves lane.”
Reneé Rapp's history with Sex Lives of College Girls:
In the first two seasons of the HBO Max show The Sex Lives of College Girls, Rapp starred as Leighton Murray, a rough-around-the-edges college student who was grappling with how public to be with her sexuality. The first season ended up paralleling Rapp's own journey with queerness; she now identifies as a lesbian.
Rapp left the show early in season 3, which ended up being the final season of the series. Rapp shared the news of her departure from SLOCG in a social media post in July 2023, writing, "College Girls moved me out to L.A. and introduced me to some of my favorite people. Two and a half years later — it’s given me y’all and this community. Thank u Mindy, Justin and everyone at Max for believing in me. A lot of queer work gets belittled — but playing Leighton has changed my life. I love who I am 10x more than I did before knowing her. I hope she gave y’all a little bit of that too. She’s such a tiny part of representation but even the tiny parts count. I wouldn’t be half the person I am without her and y’all. I love that b*tch more than you know. I’m so excited for this season and I can’t wait for you to see what we have coming for her and the girls.”
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In season 3, her character is written off; Leighton decides to transfer to MIT to pursue a more rigorous academic curriculum. While the show introduced some interesting new characters in her place, post-Leighton, it never quite got back into the groove that made it such a fun series to watch.
Why did Reneé Rapp leave Sex Lives of College Girls?
Likely multiple reasons, but the main one is that she wanted to prioritize music, and she told Variety that acting was more of a means to that end. “[I thought], I can do music on the side, like, I can just hustle. And now I’ve just kept acting, because it keeps supporting the music… Acting was my way into tricking everyone that I warranted attention, so that I could have this interview with you,” she told the outlet.
"I definitely have feelings about it and what that means for the show and me and my music," she told People in 2023.
It's tough to prioritize music on an actor's schedule, where you're contractually obligated to be present for large blocks of time, so her departure to focus on that arena does make sense.
Fan reactions, cast reactions, and speculation:
There's bound to be some thoughts on the lyric from fans and listeners. One called her (positively), “our un-media trained queen” in an Instagram comment. Another summed it up as, “song of the motherf*cking summer.”
Meanwhile, her close friend and former co-star Alyah Chanelle Scott commented a straightforward “YYEEEAAAAAAAAH" on the album announcement post.
