Angel Haze

Raykeea Angel Wilson (born July 10, 1991), better known by her stage name Angel Haze, is an American rapper and lyricist signed to Universal Republic and Island Records. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in the Greater Apostolic Faith. In 2012, Haze released her EP Reservation for free online, she later signed a record deal with Universal Republic Records later moving to Republic Records. On August 28, 2013, Haze released her first single from her debut album, &Echelon (It's My Way).&
 
Raykeea Angel Wilson was born on July 10, 1991, in Detroit, Michigan, to a military family. She is of mixed African and Native American ancestry, and is a self-taught speaker of Tsalagi.
 
Haze was raised under the Greater Apostolic Faith, which she has often likened to &a cult.& Speaking of her religious upbringing with The Guardian, Haze said that, &We all lived in the same community, within 10 minutes of each other. You weren't allowed to talk to anyone outside of that, you weren't allowed to wear jewelry, listen to music, to eat certain things, to date people...you weren't allowed to do pretty much anything.& However, after a pastor threatened Haze's mother, her family left the church and moved to Brooklyn, New York when she was 16 years old, then she soon began delving into the world of secular music.
 
Wilson, through her cover of Eminem's song &Cleaning Out My Closet&, admits at the age of seven she was sexually assaulted multiple times by one man, and then later that man's friend joined in on the rapings. She was assaulted continually for an unknown period of time. Wilson had never told anyone about the sexual abuse, because she said she was scared to tell anyone and that people would not believe her if she did tell. In a concert in the UK she said &This is the first and last time I’m going to perform this song& then she performed the song.
 
Angel Haze released her EP Reservation for free online in July 2012. It was met with critical acclaim, receiving a 88/100 score at Metacritic. In the same year, she took part in the BET Hip Hop Awards' Cypher. She was also featured on Funk Volume artist Dizzy Wright's mixtape Free SmokeOut Conversations, on the remixed track for &Can't Trust Em&. On her 2012 mixtape Classick, she recorded a cover of Eminem’s 2002 song, &Cleanin' Out My Closet&. Earbuddy's John Downey wrote, &Haze’s take on Slim Shady’s classic tune might be the superior product.& It was announced that Universal Republic Records was going defunct, making artists including Haze to move from its roster to the revived Republic Records. On December 9, the BBC announced that she had been nominated for the Sound of 2013 poll.
 
On January 3, 2013, Haze released a diss track aimed at fellow rapper Azealia Banks, titled &On the Edge&. Haze also released another diss track towards Banks on January 4, titled &Shut The Fuck Up&. On March 27, it was announced that Haze would be featured on the cover of XXL Magazine's annual &Freshman Class& cover. On May 16, British recording artist Natalia Kills announced that she was collaborating with Haze in the studio for her sophomore album, Trouble. While a track list for the album was released on July 30, 2013, it is still unknown if Haze's contributions will see release. In May 2013, Haze and Australian rapper Iggy Azalea debuted a cover of Kanye West and Jay-Z's 2011 song &Otis& at a performance in London. At the same event, Haze gave a performance of a track off her upcoming debut album Dirty Gold, titled &No Bueno.&
 
On August 28, she released her first single from her debut album, &Echelon (It's My Way).& On December 18, Haze leaked her own album, Dirty Gold, in its entirety. The leak happened following a dispute with her record label, which Haze wrote about in a series of tweets expressing her outrage. It was supposedly scheduled for release in March 2014 as her debut studio album. Dirty Gold was finally released in December 30 to positive reviews but weak sales, selling 857 copies in its first week in the UK, and less than 1,000 copies in the same period in the United States.