Angel Haze performs at the Bluebird Theater on Wednesday. Photo by Dorian Caster.
is the answer to the lack of substance hip-hop purists decry on the regular.
Through gritty raps and melody, she hits on real social issues like rape culture, suicide and sexuality. They’re heavy topics, but Haze’s personal reflections make songs like relatable. The latest project “Back to the Woods” finds the MC taking it back to her roots as a singer and rapper. The songs are full of emotion, and her voice is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Itap easy to imagine how Haze might use music as therapy. She’s passionate about issues like misogyny and feminism and doesn’t shy away from expressing herself–no matter the mic.
Read on as we talk with Angel Haze ahead about how fans relate to her dark side, Black Lives Matter and the weird apartment building that is the Internet.
Reverb: Whatap happening in the world according to Angel Haze?
Angel Haze: I feel like we’re in a sort of intimate place. Everybody is trying to figure everything out. We have topics like feminism, misogyny and transgender issues that are becoming a part of our every day conversations. There’s so much going on, I think about all of this in terms of evolution. Itap beautiful but itap dangerous as well.
Dangerous because we all live on the Internet and have so much access to each other?
[laughs] Well that too. Itap dangerous because of that but with any forward motion, whether itap a community or a world as a whole, someone gets stepped on. People will get trampled when we’re all running onward. A lot of people have to die in order to prove the momentum means something. Even with the Black Lives Matter movement, that wouldn’t have happened so quickly if we hadn’t seen so many black deaths by white people who are racist or police who are racists. We had to let them know that our lives matter and we can’t take another 200 years to convince them.Right, and everyone gets to have their opinion heard because the Internet is one massive platform. Like an apartment building.
The Internet is a weird fucking place. Itap like walking into someone’s room and seeing them shaking their ass and being able to comment on it.
When someone has something to say thatap worth hearing though, it can be a great tool.
Absolutely, I’m learning that with my overall goals. I can be a really dark person and thatap not by choice, but the way that the world is crafted. Darkness is suffocating but life has to be found in the juxtaposition. To be beautiful you have to know about the ugly shit and itap the beauty that leads you there.
People are drawn to your music in really personal ways. How does that craft your art as a whole?
I don’t want to say I’m a role model but itap important for kids to know that there’s areas of this world that will help you navigate the trenches. I’m really interested in cultivating a sense of personal pride. Shit I’ve gone through has made me feel ashamed of who I am. I’ve felt so dirty like I don’t want anyone to touch me because I’ll fuck your life up. My music, my life is an example of the shit we go through but there’s hope there, too.
What can we expect from your show in Denver? People are probably going to be smoking a lot of weed.
Yes! I want that to happen. I need all the weed, bring me all the weed. Actually my brother is a transplant. He lived there for a really long time so i’m super stoked to be back in Colorado. My energy is going to be amazing for that show and itap going to be wild as fuck.
