Angel Haze

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i'm saaaaaaatan
and imma take your ass to church now

this girl is the most exciting young rapper around right now. her new mixtape reservation (out next tues) has been blowing.my.mind this week - both for the tracks where she goes hard, like above, but also for the softer stuff: "gypsy letters" is perfect bittersweet summer-crush reminiscence, "smiles n hearts" is emotionally fucking draining ~srs thoughts~. some of you may remember that i was super high on her stuff last year, and she's seriously stepped her game up in terms of tightening her songwriting, hooks and flow. (reservation is her first mixtape of all original beats, i think.)

those other tracks aren't online yet but this cosmic love jam from last year's altered ego mixtape is still one of the best things i've ever heard.

[and because labels suck but are unavoidable to an extent: native american heritage, queer, childhood cult survivor.]

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Friday, 13 July 2012 11:21 (10 months ago) Permalink

In addition to the glorious Fall For Your Type (Remix), you should listen to 'Things Money Can Buy', her take on Drake's 'Dreams Money Can Buy' because she's somehow able to take Drake-penned numbers and while keeping much of their meter and rhythm turns them into contemplative philosophical based love and/or inspirational jamz:

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Friday, 13 July 2012 18:03 (10 months ago) Permalink

Must hear this new mixtape.

Ned Raggett, Friday, 13 July 2012 18:06 (10 months ago) Permalink

Her Yonkers is also pretty intense and maybe more disturbed than Tyler's:

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Friday, 13 July 2012 18:06 (10 months ago) Permalink

Her first two mixtapes, Altered Ego and No Greater Love got "best of" compiled into one called KING and it's harder to track down the earlier versions, but Altered Ego especially has some necessary jamz that don't appear elsewhere.

Her Voice EP came out earlier this year, and despite the name was really a mixtape.

Oddly, Reservation is being called a mixtape, but is all original beats and getting put out on vinyl so it's really more of a debut LP.

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Friday, 13 July 2012 18:07 (10 months ago) Permalink

couple more tracks from reservation are out there -

werkin' girls http://soundcloud.com/pinboardblog/angel-haze-werkin-girls
hot like fire (yes, as in the aaliyah song) http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hot-like-fire-by-angel-haze-free-mp3-20120713

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Friday, 13 July 2012 18:10 (10 months ago) Permalink

i think the thing that i was trying to get at in my review was that her confessional-cathartic stuff has the potential to resonate HARD with what could be a very, very loyal fanbase

this story from last year is good on her background - http://www.thefader.com/2011/05/24/feature-angel-haze-has-got-talent-and-a-whole-lot-of-issues/

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Friday, 13 July 2012 18:12 (10 months ago) Permalink

I didn't really enjoy the Voice EP as much as I liked Altered Ego, but the tracks posted here from the new one sound great. I think she's super talented and hope this gets some shine.

Regional Tug (irrational), Friday, 13 July 2012 18:19 (10 months ago) Permalink

Her old spoken word poetry from her YouTube channel is great, also.

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Friday, 13 July 2012 18:20 (10 months ago) Permalink

i think this is the Azealia Banks i actually like

cuteforce, Friday, 13 July 2012 18:24 (10 months ago) Permalink

I don't really get the comparison.

Regional Tug (irrational), Friday, 13 July 2012 18:28 (10 months ago) Permalink

am0n, the road to nowhere (cozen), Friday, 13 July 2012 18:40 (10 months ago) Permalink

Yeah, I don't really get the Banks/Haze comparison besides the fact that they're queer female rappers.

Azealia's always been more hipster-dance adjacent and spits rapid fire syllable-play over 90s house etc. Her flow is more important than its content for enjoyment of her music, imo. (Although the content is fun too, although more party + sex raps)

Angel, even though she's capable of going hard, raps overtop more boom bap stuff and more 'traditional' hip hop beats, and (often but not always) her lyrics *are* clearly not just meticulously 'composed' but also intended to be listened to as self-expression.

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Friday, 13 July 2012 18:43 (10 months ago) Permalink

what cult did she survive?

perry en concrète (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Saturday, 14 July 2012 20:36 (10 months ago) Permalink

In the fader piece I linked

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Saturday, 14 July 2012 23:33 (10 months ago) Permalink

alex, i think you compared quite well: haze feels more real

cuteforce, Sunday, 15 July 2012 00:30 (10 months ago) Permalink

RT @NativeRaeen: Listen to Angel Haze's RESERVATION in its entirety NOW. CLICK THE LINK. http://bit.ly/MznLoE

^^do it

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Monday, 16 July 2012 16:29 (10 months ago) Permalink

haha spin STILL auto-redirects me away from every page i try to visit

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Monday, 16 July 2012 16:33 (10 months ago) Permalink

okay "New York" is fucking fantastic

PITILESS LIVE SHOW (DJP), Monday, 16 July 2012 16:33 (10 months ago) Permalink

Love that it opens with a music box playing 'Over the Rainbow'. How Haze is that. So many feelings. lol.

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Monday, 16 July 2012 16:38 (10 months ago) Permalink

approve of this aaliyah sample

J0rdan S., Monday, 16 July 2012 16:41 (10 months ago) Permalink

Yeah. The Aaliyah sample is great.

Two tracks in and it already feels more cohesive than the previous mixtapes. There's real effort to present Angel in all her facets but less... ramshackle?

Wicked Moon is great, despite it kind of being horrorcore + dubstep + one verse of quasi-toasting + the return of Nicole Wray.

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Monday, 16 July 2012 16:46 (10 months ago) Permalink

the second verse of "new york" is so amazing

i am - zero past a hundred
spittin like a dragon that went missing from a dungeon
y'all a bunch of n*ggas gettin trippy offa nothing
tie a rope a round your neck and lemme kick you off a bungee
i'm SAAATAN, and imma take your ass to church now
running my fields and you n*ggas on your first down
i love it when these bitches know i'm better than em
cuz i don't hear not a word nor a letter from em

i'm a fire in the midst of the forest round bitches
and i rap elliptical orbits round bitches
anaconda, i sit with an open mouth bitches
and you bitches are lyrically like some fuckin down's syndrome
no offence, no shade and all
but y'all bitches on knees like babies crawl
you can catch me out in covert, chilling like a stoop kid
yeah hate, don't talk bitch, do it

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Monday, 16 July 2012 16:47 (10 months ago) Permalink

Wicked Moon is great, despiteBECAUSE it kind of being horrorcore + dubstep + one verse of quasi-toasting + the return of Nicole Wray.

corrected!

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Monday, 16 July 2012 16:48 (10 months ago) Permalink

ha I read that description and was "oh is that the fucking fantastic song I'm listening to right now?" and... it was!

PITILESS LIVE SHOW (DJP), Monday, 16 July 2012 16:50 (10 months ago) Permalink

Yeah. Fair enough. I think I meant that the description does not sound appetizing and then it is. Mostly the horrorcore + dubstep parts sound iffy when described but it's so damn good.

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Monday, 16 July 2012 16:52 (10 months ago) Permalink

Also can we talk about how the beat for ‘New York’ sounds like a sample from that Gil Scott-Heron record mixed with the handclap jump-rope ‘No Music’ break in the middle of Lil Mama’s ‘Lipstick’ and the trunk-rattlin’ thump from Grindin’?

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Monday, 16 July 2012 16:58 (10 months ago) Permalink

my reference point was the Diwali riddim with the synths stripped out, basically Lumidee on steroids

PITILESS LIVE SHOW (DJP), Monday, 16 July 2012 17:03 (10 months ago) Permalink

Oh shit. You're right. My bad.

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Monday, 16 July 2012 17:10 (10 months ago) Permalink

I want to play "Jungle Fever" on endless loop

PITILESS LIVE SHOW (DJP), Monday, 16 July 2012 17:18 (10 months ago) Permalink

did she dropped a video with rick ross last year or am i mistaking her for someone else ?

sisilafami, Monday, 16 July 2012 17:40 (10 months ago) Permalink

that was Reema Major

Number None, Monday, 16 July 2012 17:40 (10 months ago) Permalink

oh yeah.

next question : how is this an ep ?

sisilafami, Monday, 16 July 2012 17:50 (10 months ago) Permalink

The same way Dawn Richard's 'Armor On' is.

twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Monday, 16 July 2012 17:51 (10 months ago) Permalink

I want to play "Jungle Fever" on endless loop

― PITILESS LIVE SHOW (DJP), Monday, July 16, 2012 10:18 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

rob, Monday, 16 July 2012 18:45 (10 months ago) Permalink

have to admit the opening of Sufferings First made me think I was on spotify and one of their shitty guitar-strumming ads had started

rob, Monday, 16 July 2012 18:50 (10 months ago) Permalink

New york, hot like fire, werkin girls & realest are the songs i like. The rest is pretty meh imo.

sisilafami, Monday, 16 July 2012 19:07 (10 months ago) Permalink

Also can we talk about how the beat for ‘New York’ sounds like a sample from that Gil Scott-Heron record mixed with the handclap jump-rope ‘No Music’ break in the middle of Lil Mama’s ‘Lipstick’ and the trunk-rattlin’ thump from Grindin’?

― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Monday, July 16, 2012 9:58 AM Bookmark

It is a sample from the GSH record

chain the color of am0n (The Reverend), Monday, 16 July 2012 23:39 (10 months ago) Permalink

Jungle Fever 9Remix) the first trk I'm feeling so far.

pandemic, Tuesday, 17 July 2012 10:20 (10 months ago) Permalink

And 'Castle On A Cloud' as well.

pandemic, Tuesday, 17 July 2012 10:26 (10 months ago) Permalink

"castle on a cloud" is intense

to download:

http://www.djbooth.net/index/albums/review/angel-haze-reservation/

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Tuesday, 17 July 2012 18:17 (10 months ago) Permalink

WOW at "Werkin' Girls".

Tim F, Thursday, 19 July 2012 22:46 (9 months ago) Permalink

like a cheetah in a jungle but i'm muthafuckin faster
like a pre-teen boy in a church with a pastor

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Friday, 20 July 2012 09:36 (9 months ago) Permalink

i be on that other shit, got that from my other bitch
she come from an island or a desert or some TUNDRA SHIT

bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Friday, 20 July 2012 09:37 (9 months ago) Permalink

Tundra shit is great yeah

Number None, Friday, 20 July 2012 09:39 (9 months ago) Permalink

Best thing I've heard in a while I'm thinking. Real "R.P.M." vibes.

Tim F, Sunday, 22 July 2012 04:28 (9 months ago) Permalink

I think I only like a few tracks from this. Too much DEEP THOUGHTS Angel Haze, which I've never had much use for.

The Reverend, Monday, 23 July 2012 02:46 (9 months ago) Permalink

otm

MikoMcha, Monday, 23 July 2012 10:28 (9 months ago) Permalink

DEEP THOUGHTS angel haze is what makes her special though imo - my favourite trax are also the bangers but without the DEEP THOUGHTS trax she's just another fast-tongued swag rapper with an ear for a simile.

lex pretend, Monday, 23 July 2012 13:44 (9 months ago) Permalink

Yeah I agree with that - or, well, I haven't really thought about like the status of Angel Haze as a rapper, but certainly on this the tunes like "Gypsy Letters" and "Castle on a Cloud" really set off my actual favourites like "Workin' Girls" and "New York".

I'm having a very Lex phase at the moment - playing this and Melanie Fiona a lot.

Tim F, Monday, 23 July 2012 13:48 (9 months ago) Permalink

Male rappers rarely look good beefing either - unless they can tie it into some sort of big mythology about themselves that they can build on. That certainly didn't happen here.

dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Monday, 7 January 2013 13:45 (4 months ago) Permalink

yeah i mean the Cassidy/Meek Mill thing is stupid as fuck too, it's pretty rare that beef isn't especially these days

some dude, Monday, 7 January 2013 13:50 (4 months ago) Permalink

i just remembered the common/drake beef over serena williams

i take my post back

though really how can anything actually "backfire" on an artist these days, that's evidence right there - everything carried on as normal for both despite their silliness, as it will here

lex pretend, Monday, 7 January 2013 13:53 (4 months ago) Permalink

yeah people will pretend every beef has Ja Rule levels of potential career ruination and it's just delusional, the stakes are never that high.

some dude, Monday, 7 January 2013 13:58 (4 months ago) Permalink

my fav were the rumors floating around this weekend that interscope had dropped azeala for calling perez a faggot. those labels and their strict morals!

J0rdan S., Monday, 7 January 2013 14:08 (4 months ago) Permalink

and things move too fast. something else will happen this week. pretty sure angel at least has significantly raised her profile.

lex pretend, Monday, 7 January 2013 14:09 (4 months ago) Permalink

pretty sure angel at least has significantly raised her profile.

― lex pretend, Monday, January 7, 2013 9:09 AM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark

lol exactly

J0rdan S., Monday, 7 January 2013 14:10 (4 months ago) Permalink

Beef really hasn't been the same since 50 Cent failed to take out Rick Ross. That was the Titanic of Rap Beefs.

dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Monday, 7 January 2013 14:11 (4 months ago) Permalink

well... the thing w/ that one is that people at the time saw 50 as being greater than ross even from an objective career perspective but he was really just on his execrable slide down a creative and moral bottomless pit, whereas ross' career was still on the upswing. granted that beef sort of amplified those trends but it was also 50 fucking with someone people cared more about even if a lot of others didn't realize it at the time. could say the same thing in less dramatic terms about his "beef" with kanye, too.

J0rdan S., Monday, 7 January 2013 14:18 (4 months ago) Permalink

was 50 vs kanye the point where people started automatically thinking "publicity stunt" about beef? like, that was so contrived

lex pretend, Monday, 7 January 2013 14:30 (4 months ago) Permalink

tho yknow cf http://favstar.fm/users/roxanne_shante/status/156178152270475264

lex pretend, Monday, 7 January 2013 14:31 (4 months ago) Permalink

Of course. But the remarkable thing about the beef with Ross was that it was all about authenticity and myth/persona. 50 tore down Ross' narrative about himself and it still didn't help.

dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Monday, 7 January 2013 14:33 (4 months ago) Permalink

all of 50's beefs circa The Massacre 2 years earlier were widely dismissed as publicity stunts

thomp ynchon (some dude), Monday, 7 January 2013 14:33 (4 months ago) Permalink

I mean, 50 Cent actually suffered from his misguided crusades.

dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Monday, 7 January 2013 14:34 (4 months ago) Permalink

nah 50's downfall was proof that people care more about hits than drama, he stopped having hits even when he kept bringing the drama

thomp ynchon (some dude), Monday, 7 January 2013 14:36 (4 months ago) Permalink

word

J0rdan S., Monday, 7 January 2013 14:47 (4 months ago) Permalink

Rap beef is essentially a race to the bottom. You sling as much shit as you can and hope your opponent runs out of ammo/dignity before you do. Either way you generally come out of it covered in shit. Without an album to offset the attention all these petty spats could really come back to haunt Banks.

tsrobodo, Monday, 7 January 2013 14:55 (4 months ago) Permalink

xpost. True. But 50 Cent had built big parts of his persona around the idea of him being the guy who destroyed other people's careers. When he failed so miserably with Ross and his album underperformed, he found himself with no leg to stand on.

dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Monday, 7 January 2013 14:56 (4 months ago) Permalink

that's a pretty rosy reading of 50's career at that point, longneck

J0rdan S., Monday, 7 January 2013 14:56 (4 months ago) Permalink

things just ain't the same for gangstas

What am I, in France? (forksclovetofu), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:00 (4 months ago) Permalink

they wear a lotta spandex

What am I, in France? (forksclovetofu), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:00 (4 months ago) Permalink

xpost.
Ha, the 2007 album had some minor joints at least. And it did go platinum in the end, right? His era was definitely coming to an end at that point, but the double flop (beef + album) of 09 still felt brutal. At that point there was no coming back.

dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:03 (4 months ago) Permalink

Before I Self Destruct and Deeper Than Rap sold almost the exact same amount, j0rdan's right that it was more about perception and their trajectories at that time

thomp ynchon (some dude), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:06 (4 months ago) Permalink

anyway it's hilarious that major media outlets are reporting on these 2 barely famous chicks as if it were a beef between artists as big as 50 cent and rick ross

thomp ynchon (some dude), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:07 (4 months ago) Permalink

What careers did 50 destroy?!

If AZB is harmed at all it'll be because she KEEPS ON beefing with amyone and everyone, not this specific spat (though using "faggot" when your fanbase is so heavily gay is uhhhh extra dumb). But it'll be forgotten in a month as all these things are

lex pretend, Monday, 7 January 2013 15:09 (4 months ago) Permalink

lex have you heard of this person ja rule

J0rdan S., Monday, 7 January 2013 15:10 (4 months ago) Permalink

anyway it's hilarious that major media outlets are reporting on these 2 barely famous chicks as if it were a beef between artists as big as 50 cent and rick ross

Which is exactly how they both benefit from it! It's reported as if it's a Big Deal. Helps that it all happened in the dead 1st week of Jan

lex pretend, Monday, 7 January 2013 15:11 (4 months ago) Permalink

it is hilarious that this article exists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_feuds_of_50_Cent

Solange Knowles is my hero (DJP), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:12 (4 months ago) Permalink

Ja Rule. Young Buck. Plus he had a hand in breaking up Dipset by beefing with Cam while becoming friendly with Jim Jones in public. He did also manage to make life difficult for The Game, even though Game kinda beat the odds on that one.

dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:13 (4 months ago) Permalink

Ja Rule's demise was more down to the fact that he allowed the accusations of "softness" to get to him an alienated his fanbase by releasing Blood In My Eye.

He did more damage with that than 50 could ever have dreamed of.

tsrobodo, Monday, 7 January 2013 15:17 (4 months ago) Permalink

you realize the lead single of Blood In My was a 50 diss right

thomp ynchon (some dude), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:22 (4 months ago) Permalink

Well that's how Ross "won" - he didn't allow himself to be substantially influenced by the competing narratives about who (or what) he was. He did toughen up a bit, developing his signature grunt in a more aggressive direction, but in the end he only benefited from it.

dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:25 (4 months ago) Permalink

That isn't the point. There were no club/radio friendly hits on the album, which is what had been his bread and butter. I think pretty much every song on the album was a diss and frankly nobody wants to hear that shit.

tsrobodo, Monday, 7 January 2013 15:33 (4 months ago) Permalink

well i think in the end the funniest thing about the ross/50 beef is that it really freed ross of his existential shackles re having been a cop, thus allowing him to embrace the even more absurd persona that has fueled his renaissance.

there wasn't much room left for ja artistically anyway but maybe he should've gone all in with a best of both worlds album w/ ashanti or something

J0rdan S., Monday, 7 January 2013 15:35 (4 months ago) Permalink

Yes and yes!

dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:37 (4 months ago) Permalink

have you ever seen them both in the same room? think about it

What am I, in France? (forksclovetofu), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:39 (4 months ago) Permalink

where's the nabisco post where he declared Ja Rule to be his nemesis

Solange Knowles is my hero (DJP), Monday, 7 January 2013 15:40 (4 months ago) Permalink

are you saying nabisco's beef destroyed ja?

s.clover, Monday, 7 January 2013 16:22 (4 months ago) Permalink

50 pretty much just kicked Ja on the way down

hemioblock (The Reverend), Monday, 7 January 2013 21:06 (4 months ago) Permalink

i think that's kind of an overstatement. Ja had two back-to-back #1 singles like 6 months before "Wanksta" hit.

thomp ynchon (some dude), Monday, 7 January 2013 22:03 (4 months ago) Permalink

It wasn't just Ja who sort of went nowhere very rapidly in that time period. Ashanti, etc. too. He was just especially high profile. That whole sound just sort of fell apart.

Already by The Last Tempation in 2002, Ja Rule wasn't producing the same sort of hits he had with Pain is Love.

Also remember Murder Inc. fell apart, came under federal investigation, got dropped from Def Jam, etc. Around that time 7 Aurelius, who produced some of the highest profile singles had a big feud with Irv Gotti too, claimed that Gotti had taken credit for lots of his tracks (probably true), and soforth.

s.clover, Tuesday, 8 January 2013 02:26 (4 months ago) Permalink

chink santana is the unsung murda inc hero tho

rap steve gadd (D-40), Tuesday, 8 January 2013 04:05 (4 months ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

fucking hell she was electrifying @ the scala tonight. so much stage presence and aggression. entire room completely silent and holding their breath when she did "cleaning out my closet". she's the most important young rapper in the game bar none right now

flamenco drop (lex pretend), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 00:07 (1 week ago) Permalink

i stack their bodies on top of each other like i'm hitler

controversial vegan pregnancy (contenderizer), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 00:47 (1 week ago) Permalink

what's going on with her album? is it coming out this year?

monotony, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 02:04 (1 week ago) Permalink

yeah that's the plan, she's still writing (and apparently every time she comes to london she makes time to go into the studio with UK producers). no confirmed date at all but more likely in the autumn

"cleaning out my closet" last night

flamenco drop (lex pretend), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 08:26 (1 week ago) Permalink

she's the most important young rapper in the game bar none right now

― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Tuesday, May 7, 2013 7:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

u_U

rap steve gadd (D-40), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 13:33 (1 week ago) Permalink

well that was predictable

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 13:52 (1 week ago) Permalink

as was the lack of justification

flamenco drop (lex pretend), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 14:42 (1 week ago) Permalink


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