Angel Haze

At 32 years old, Angel Haze has this physical status:

Raykeea Raeen-Roes Wilson (born July 10, 1991) known professionally as Angel Haze, is an American rapper and singer.

In 2012, Wilson released the EP Reservation and later signed a record deal with Universal Republic Records before moving to Republic Records.

On December 31, 2013, Wilson released their debut album Dirty Gold, which featured the singles "Echelon (It's My Way)" and "Battle Cry.” Wilson has released a number of mixtapes, including Reservation, which was ranked the sixth-best mixtape of 2012 by Mike Diver of the BBC.

Their most recent mixtape is Back to the Woods (2015).

Early life

Wilson was born in Detroit, Michigan to a military family. Their father, who died from a gunshot wound before their birth, was African American and their mother is Native American Cherokee. When Wilson was a young child, their mother met a preacher in the Greater Apostolic Faith and the two moved into his home with his wife and children, into what Wilson describes as a cult. Growing up in the church, Wilson witnessed domestic violence and manipulation at a very young age. As a child, they were sexually abused by a man close to the family. Wilson also recalls being told that they would die spontaneously if they did not behave correctly. In an interview with The Guardian, Wilson stated: "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."

Wilson's family moved around frequently, mainly due to their mother running away from the church. At one point the family was living in a shelter and Wilson was teased at school for it. They were also mocked for their clothes and had difficulties making friends and connections due to moving around. They switched between homeschool and public school for many years and finished high school a year early.

After a pastor threatened Wilson's mother, the family left the church, moving to Brooklyn, New York, when they were 15 years old. The pastor told Haze's family that God was going to kill them, and they lived in fear for years afterward.

Wilson began writing as a form of therapy and expressed an interest in creative writing, poetry and journalism. Their first poem was published at the age of 13 after winning a school competition. As a child, Wilson took creative writing lessons and wanted to be a songwriter or gospel artist. Eventually, they began making YouTube videos and freestyle rapping at the age of 18. Wilson began distributing music on the Internet through sites such as Tumblr, where a fan base began to form.

Personal life

Wilson is pansexual and agender. They have said: "People talking about me, like, 'I'm glad there's an actual woman of color representing queerness and pansexuality, someone who is like me in the spotlight.'" In 2015, Wilson noted that in an interview with BuzzFeed that they identify as neither male nor female and explained, "I feel like my agenderness and my gender identity have evolved". In 2016, they told the Evening Standard that they preferred he/him or she/her pronouns, expressing their feeling that, when reading articles about themself, "I sound like four people when I get written about as 'they.' It drives me crazy [...] If you call me 'him' or 'her,' it doesn't matter to me. I don't consider myself of any sex. I consider myself an experience." Wilson has since begun using they/them pronouns.

In an interview with The Guardian, Wilson stated that, "Love is boundary-less. If you can make me feel, if you can make me laugh—and that's hard to do—then I can be with you." In 2014, Haze was in a relationship with model Ireland Baldwin. The two broke up a year later.

Wilson recorded a cover of Macklemore's "Same Love," which chronicled their own personal experiences. They opened up about their struggles with family over sexuality and growing up LGBTQ. In a 2017 Billboard interview they stated, "When I was young … I didn't understand what was going on. I didn't understand that I could be attracted to men and women at the same time."

In 2015, Wilson began working on a body image project titled "The Naked Eye" incorporating nude photographs and interviews of people with body dysmorphia. The project aims to create a conversation about conventional and mainstream beauty standards.

Wilson is self-taught in the Cherokee language and celebrates their multiracial heritage.

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Career

Wilson released a number of mixtapes from 2009 to 2012: New Moon, Altered Ego, King, and Voice. They unveiled the free mixtape Reservation in July 2012 to critical acclaim, earning an 88/100 rating from Metacritic. The reservation is a nodulation to Native Americans' roots. Wilson was nominated for the BBC Sound of 2013 poll.

Wilson related to their sexual abuse as a child in "Cleaning Out My Closet," a song from Eminem's collection of segments.

Wilson's debut single on the debut album Dirty Gold was "Echelon (It's My Way)" on August 28, 2013. The entire album was leaked on December 18, 2013 – just the first glimpse of what was supposed to be a release in March 2014. The album's release date was set, and it received raves from Island Records and Republic Records on December 30, 2013. It had a modest first-week sales of just over 500 copies. Wilson unveiled the mixtape Back to the Woods on September 14, 2015, announcing that it was just "something to say before a sophomore." Wilson's "Resurrection" was announced in March 2017.

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