Ren Gill

Ren Gill (born 29 March 1990) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, rapper, poet, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is known as Ren as a solo artist, and as a member of The Big Push, a band known for their street music in Brighton. Ren caught the attention of record labels as a street performer in Brighton in 2009 and was signed to a record deal with Sony. Around the same time, however, he fell suddenly ill, and his deteriorating health cut short any hopes of a music career when Sony decided to terminate his contract. Over the next few years, Ren received several false diagnoses including depression, bipolar disorder and chronic fatigue syndrome, until he was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease in December 2015.

Through a crowdfunding campaign, Ren received expert treatment for his illness, and thanks to a stem cell treatment in 2016, he was able to continue his work in music on a self-pay basis, including the release of his first album Freckled Angels.

Ren's output includes songs that are stylistically very varied and combine different genres. Released in 2020, the socially charged "Money Game Part 2", which combines rap and vocals, received a lot of attention when the Luigi meme from it went viral. On the rap side of the production, Ren's work includes a number of rap songs, including "Money Game Part 2", which is a mix of rap and vocals. "The Hunger" and the Beastie Boys-inspired "What You Want" from 2022, while the songs "Jenny's Tale" (2019), "Screech's Tale" (2019) and "Violet's Tale" (2022) together form a narrative trilogy, in which speech and song are accompanied solely by guitar. Ren has playfully described his music as bardcore, a reference to the singing storytellers or bards of Celtic cultures.

In December 2022, Ren self-released the song "Hi Ren", which quickly gained popularity on YouTube, hit over five million views in the first month after its release. In the comments of the video, Ren explains that the song is based on his own experiences with physical and mental illness. His next self-released song "Sick Boi" was released in January 2023.

In January 2023, Ren travelled to Canada to receive further treatment for Lyme disease. The three-month stay was extended to at least six months due to the complexity of the problems, and through a crowdfunding campaign, Ren quickly raised the necessary funds to pay for the treatment.