Bebe Rexha co-wrote Eminem and Rihanna’s 2013 smash “The Monster” — yet she’s never even met them.
Well, the singer did have a pre-“Monster” encounter with Rihanna when the pop star dropped by the Saks perfume counter where Rexha worked.
“I was really excited, but she didn’t talk to me,” Rexha, 25, says with a chuckle. “It’s OK — she was in her own world, you know?”
Rexha was foiled once more when she shared a bill with the “Monster” pair at last year’s Lollapalooza. “I was dying to see my song performed live,” she says, “but the security guy wouldn’t let me anywhere near the arena area!”
Rexha’s not complaining too much though, because her career has taken off since then. She released her debut EP, “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up,” in May, and is spending her summer on the Vans Warped Tour. (It hits Jones Beach July 11.)
Even better, Rexha was so vocal about not originally being acknowledged alongside Nicki Minaj and Afrojack on David Guetta’s EDM hit “Hey Mama” that she just received an official credit. She only co-wrote the song and performs the chorus, after all.
“It’s one thing if you write a song and somebody else sings it because you give the OK,” Rexha says. “But if your voice is on something and you don’t get the credit, it’s kind of hard. So I’m happy about it now.”
Born in Brooklyn, Rexha moved with her Albanian family to Staten Island when she was 6 and taught herself to play the trumpet, guitar and piano. While still in her teens, she was spotted by a talent scout.
“I would be the only 15-year-old girl in these [songwriting] workshops with 48-year-old men and they would kind of laugh at me,” Rexha recalls. “I sucked at the time, but I was really driven.”
Rexha has since piled up songwriting credits and featurings — she sang Cash Cash’s popular dance track “Take Me Home” — but she’s now out to make a name for herself. And that includes traveling on the punk-identified Warped Tour.
“These kids are just like me,” Rexha says of her summertime audience. “I just go up there and sing about what I’m going through, which is what they’re going through. I just don’t let music genres define me.”
Warning: Explicit language