Who is Angel Haze?

Up close and personal with Universal Republic's new artist.

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Complex Original

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Angel Haze’s debut EP, Reservation, is one of the better releases to come out this year. What makes it interesting is that there are two sides to her persona. On one hand, she's an MC who's ruthlessly coming for the throats of competitors—like on “New York” and “Werkin Girls”—but on other, she's an artist who’s honest and vulnerable.

Her maturity comes by way of a difficult childhood that took her many places, physically and emotionally. She’s lived everywhere from Michigan to L.A. and was once homeless living on the New Jersey turnpike. Her family was affiliated with a religious cult when she was a child.

As a result, Haze never quite fit in with her peers and the combined trauma of it all even drove her to suicidal thoughts at one point. Fortunately, the 21-year-old rose from darkness and grew into the artist we know today, with a chronic case of what she calls the "not give a fuck" syndrome.

After the success of her EP, Angel Haze signed with Universal Republic, and her fans are more than ready to see her evolve. Haze has been busy doing and working on new music, but she took a moment to speak about her new life with Complex. Read on to find out, Who is Angel Haze?

As told to Brian Josephs (@Bklyn_Rock)

Growing Up in Multiple Cities

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Angel Haze: “I moved from Michigan when I was eight months old. In between there, I was in L.A. for a while and then back to Michigan. I lived in Michigan for a couple of years. I don’t know exactly when I moved back from L.A., so I wanna say 2 to 10. I don’t know.


 

My mom was in a cult [called Love, Peace, and the Holy Ghost]. My mom spent most of her time running away from it. Every state there was something different, sort of like running from a bad omen.


 

“My mom was in a cult [called Love, Peace, and the Holy Ghost]. My mom spent most of her time running away from it. Every state there was something different, sort of like running from a bad omen, and no matter what, she couldn’t really escape it. Every year-and-a-half to two years, I moved.

“Moving around was really hard because you never really fit in anywhere. You go to new places and everybody has their ties with each other. It was really tough. I went from being home schooled to not being home schooled to just a bunch of other random stuff I didn’t have to deal with.

“Pennsylvania was different. It’s actually my favorite place to live. It’s really rural. I’ve lived in a place called Allentown, and growing up there was difficult because I was so different. I was the type of kid that lived in my head, and everything outside of me was kind of like not my reality. So to everyone else I was a fucking character, and for me it was just regular. I didn’t get along too well at school or with kids.

Her Relationship With Religion

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Angel Haze: “I had a really fucked up relationship with religion. I don’t believe in it. I think it’s chaotic, manipulative bullshit. As far as spiritual deities, I do believe in God and spirituality, even though it’s going to take me a long time to get there. But it’s out there.

“I’ve always had a horrible relationship with religion because I grew up as an innocent bystander. I refer to it as as cult because it was. Seeing all the things that they did to younger girls and to older girls, to manipulate people...It’s like a wild god on campus and everybody’s excuse was, ‘God told me to do this.’ It was fucked up for me.

“They were fucked up. They were getting 15 years old girls pregnant and doing the most crazy shit. The prophet told my mom that God told him that she was supposed to be his next wife. His wife was gonna die and my mom was supposed to be his next wife, so she had to stay there and sleep with him while he was sleeping with his wife. Mind you, his wife is still alive to this day. It was a manipulation type of thing and he was doing it with every single woman in the church. There’s so many people that have kids by him there, even young girls. It was just crazy.”


 

They were getting 15 years old girls pregnant and doing the most crazy shit. The prophet told my mom that God told him that she was supposed to be his next wife. His wife was gonna die and my mom was supposed to be his next wife, so she had to stay there and sleep with him while he was sleeping with his wife. Mind you, his wife is still alive to this day.


 

“After about 12, my mom gave up on the church idea. I don’t know, I can’t really speak for her. I guess if you spend so much time on something and you don’t get there, then you never want to do it.

“I think about three years ago everybody left that church, so it kind of ended. The pastor died of cancer. He actually died hating God, which is crazy. It’s such an ironic thing.”

“The guy told my mom when we left Michigan that God was going to kill me and my older brother, that we weren’t supposed to live past a certain age, that God was gonna be very angry with her. Blah, blah, blah. A couple of years after that, until maybe I was 16, my mom was still living under the fear that God was gonna take our lives, that we weren’t supposed to do certain things like listen to secular music. We weren’t allowed to listen to like hip-hop and R&B, because it was a sure way to land yourself in hell. At 16, my mom kind of got over it and was like, ‘Who cares? Just do whatever you want.’”

“I hated it, I really did. I was going through my own type of shit, and then to have all of the extra stuff added was a really sucky way to grow up.”

Her Relationship With Her Mother

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Angel Haze: “We have a really weird relationship. I want to say my relationship with my mom now is great, but we had a really rocky relationship. I blamed her for a lot of the things that happened to me in my life, but I had to get over it and understand the fact that parents are still people.

"Even when they have you, that doesn’t mean that their life stops. They still continue searching for what they need in their life and they’re still individuals. Once I had the understanding I kind of let everything go.

“Me and my mom don’t really have religious conversations because she’s so irritated with what I believe. I’m the type of person who questions everything. You can’t tell me tell me one thing and just expect me to believe it.


 

I feel like manipulation and being so deep into something, having it be a lie, having it be ripped away from you, and having it be something that tortures you is kind of a mindstate you never really escape from. I honestly feel that way. It’s like a rain cloud. It just follows you around your whole entire life. You can have days without rain, but ultimately it’s still there.


 

“Sometimes, I feel like manipulation and being so deep into something, having it be a lie, having it be ripped away from you, and having it be something that tortures you is kind of a mindstate you never really escape from. I honestly feel that way.

“It’s like a rain cloud. It just follows you around your whole entire life. You can have days without rain, but ultimately it’s still there. My mom has gotten so much better over the years that I give and I take. I just go with it.

“I treat everything in retrospective, so I feel like anyone could influence my writing. Anyone could stop me on the street and I just learn from people. My mom taught me there’s no such thing as a real kryptonite. Anything in the world that holds you down, you have the ability to get from under it, you have the ability to break it apart. There’s no such thing as being down for too long.

“I don’t want to seem like the type of artist who’s emotionally trapped in their past, but I had a really hard time in Michigan from being raped and molested growing up to having no family, no dad. And my aunt hated me when I was a kid. I don’t know why she wouldn’t let me come over her house. She would let my brother come over.

“The day we were leaving Michigan, me and my mom sat on the Greyhound bus. I sat next to her and I started crying. I said, ‘Everyone here hates me.’ She told that when we moved away that everything was gonna be okay. Like nobody was gonna be able to hurt us anymore. Blah, blah, blah. It didn’t happen exactly like [how it’s told in 'This is Me'], but it just kind of unraveled. It got worse.


 

We would end up in the craziest of places, like being thrown out onto a highway, on the Jersey Turnpike, by a friend who wanted to be with my mom and she didn’t want to be with her. She went from walking on a fucking highway to being in New York with her ex-fiance. She tried to burn him in the face with an iron, beat him with a baseball bat, and she chased him around the subway system.


 

“My mom is warped now. So she leaves a place where she’s in extreme amount of danger, pain, and she feels neglected. Mind you, she has had her childhood... whole tragedy type of shit. She’s looking for something like love. That kind of emotional validation she was seeking only came in the wrong place because her energy behind it was so wrong.

“So we would end up in the craziest of places, like being thrown out onto a highway, on the Jersey Turnpike, by a friend who wanted to be with my mom and she didn’t want to be with her. She went from walking on a fucking highway to being in New York with her ex-fiance. She tried to burn him in the face with an iron, beat him with a baseball bat, and she chased him around the subway system. Being so exposed and just being thrown into this whirlwind of fucking craziness make you think, ‘Wow.’

“I always thought my mom would get arrested and me and my brother would live alone. We have no family. Legitimately none. So it sucks because we’d be in a product of the system. It always used to worry me as a kid.”

Why She Hated School

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Angel Haze: “I had trouble in school. Academically I was straight. I actually didn’t go to school for two whole semesters and I still passed. So it was a big deal for me. From skipping school I started skipping town. It just that I was a really unhappy kid. I was just troubled as fuck man. I don’t know why, I was just out of it.

“I didn’t build many friends. I didn’t build many connections. My family was in a shelter when we moved to Virginia, some kid from my school found out, and they started picking on me. It was like whatever.


 

It just that I was a really unhappy kid. I was just troubled as f**k man. I don’t know why, I was just out of it.


 

“My shit sucked man. I didn’t have many clothes and I was like wearing the same things. Everybody would be like, ‘Didn’t you wear that yesterday?’ And I’d be like, ‘Fuck my life.’

“I didn’t end up graduating from a regular high school. I went back to being home schooled. So I was home schooled off and on throughout my life. So I would go from home school to a regular school, back to a home school , back to regular school kind of thing. I was over by like 11th grade, and I finished my schooling home schooled.

“It was easy for me. I’ve been home schooled before, so everything with me was just me teaching myself. I learned a lot faster when I’m alone, not distracted. I just applied for colleges and chilled with SATs and stuff.”

Her Obsession With Neurology and Other Interests

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Angel Haze: “I had an obsession with neurology at one point.  I wanted to go on to be a neurological surgeon. I had other obsessions with law, other sciences, and stuff like that. But I got bored with it, and as soon as I get bored I don’t want to do it anymore. So music is the only thing I’ve yet to stop loving. So I just thought that I’d make a life of it.

“My English teacher, he actually got me into it. His name was Mr. Fleming and he worked at T.C. Williams High School. I went to the the school from Remember the Titans. He called me to class one day and said, ‘I want you to take a test.'


 

Some of the white kids in my neighborhood stole my skateboard, and I can’t prove who did it so I can’t go outside anybody’s head. So I have to buy a new one.


 

"I was like okay. He tells me it’s to determine what part of your brain you most utilize. I’m like, ‘okay.’ He says I’m predominantly left brain thinker, mostly neurologic. Right brains are more creative.

"He said, ‘You have this abnormal balance between the two of them,’ and I’m like, ‘Wow.’” I started reading more about neurology and I then a read a book about Daniel Amen, who’s like the top practicing male surgeon in the world, and I thought it was the most intense thing ever. Like, ‘Oh my God. I have to do do this.'

“So I read so many neurology books. It was so boring, but so interesting. I was addicted to it.

“I liked skateboarding, I liked poetry, and I like shopping. Just really regular stuff. I was skateboarding until I was 15. It’s a hobby I still have but I don’t ever really have time to skateboard."

“I love skateboarding. I’ve fallen a couple of times, but it’s freedom. Some of the white kids in my neighborhood stole my skateboard, and I can’t prove who did it so I can’t go outside anybody’s head. So I have to buy a new one."

Musical Influences

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Angel Haze: “I was obsessed with Eminem, I was completely immersed in it. Eminem’s‘My Dad’s Gone Crazy,’ 'Lose Yourself,’ ‘Cleaning Out My Closet,’ ‘The Way I Am,’ ‘Hailie’s Song.’ Just all the stuff that he came out with. I love Eminem just from the root of him. From the root of him to his most recent album he did. I’m like a diehard Eminem fan. He just gets better.

"As a kid, I didn’t go straight into hip-hop. I’ve always been really eclectic as far as my musical choices go. So I’d listen to White Stripes, My Chemical Romance, typical rock-and-roll teen type of shit.


 

I don’t really like rap music. It’s like most of the stuff is not genuine; it doesn’t come from a real place. You just sit there and you listen to people brag about million dollars, cars, and dumb shit that has no value in this world.


 

“I don’t really like rap music. It’s like most of the stuff is not genuine; it doesn’t come from a real place. You just sit there and you listen to people brag about million dollars, cars, and dumb shit that has no value in this world. Everything with rap is so monetary, no one focuses on the release that comes through music.

“I loved Aaliyah growing up. I wanted to be her. Actually 'Hot Like Fire' is an Aaliyah sample. I just flipped it. You need to pay homage to the artists who influenced you, and Aaliyah is definitely a big influence for me as far as style goes. How sweet she was and how dangerous she could be at times. I loved her like legitimately.

“I don’t really like R&B music. I think Trey Songz ruined it for me...I’m kidding.

“I like alternative. I love people like Jason Mraz, Justin Nozuka, Train, New Radicals, really different types of groups. Matchbox 20, Metallica, Green Day, Toploader, Christina Aguilera—she’s so dope. Her voice is crazy."

How She Started Writing

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Angel Haze: “I would say writing for me is rehabilitation, the need to express myself. I have really bad trust issues—no Drake—but I don’t really like to tell my problems to anyone. So that’s the best therapy, just writing it down, just throwing your paper to the wind, and letting nature handle your problems.

“It all started in therapy, but I was always interested in creative writing and journalism for four years. I took creative writing classes, and just everything you can possibly imagine. I wanted to be a writer at one point; a songwriter actually. Then I wanted to be a gospel artist. I used to love Yolanda Adams, Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin, and Mary Mary.


 

would say writing for me is rehabilitation, the need to express myself. I have really bad trust issues—no Drake—but I don’t really like to tell my problems to anyone.


 

“I don’t know, I think it was so instilled into me that I just wanted to do it naturally. But gospel music is like...I don’t know. I like it. The regular cluby, dancy shit I like, especially Mary, Mary.

“I never thought I’d be performing any of it, but I had my first poem published at the age of 13 in an actual publication. My school had some competition, and whoever won would get into some book and get free tickets to Japan or something. I never saw my tickets, and never got my copy of the book. I ended up moving, so it’s kinda of like, ‘eh.’ 

"It was actually a poem I wrote about music, which is so ironic. But other than that I just started doing it, and just found a love for it. For me, my ultimate decision for what I would do in life is what I could never stop loving."

Getting Popular on YouTube

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Angel Haze : “I want to say [I started] when I turned 18 actually. I did them when I was in high school, when I went to actual school, and after I was like, ‘You know what? Fuck this.’

"I had like several different aliases, which will go unnamed. I would just delete YouTube accounts. On one of them I have over 2 million views and I just like dropped out of it. I created Angel Haze, and after that it was all said and done for.


 

I would get a lot of messages that’d be like, ‘Oh, I hate you,’ ‘I hope you die,’ ‘White people stole your land,’ Really off the wall random s**t.


 

“It was a liberating thing. The Internet is a very malicious place and if you have not noticed, people are really rude there. I would get a lot of messages that’d be like, ‘Oh, I hate you,’ ‘I hope you die,’ ‘White people stole your land,’ ‘You’re not really native. Fuck off, you’re lame,’ and blah, blah, blah. Really off the wall random shit.

"So I made video about I Don’t Give a Fuck Disorder: All of the time you spend writing me messages, I’m not giving a fuck about them and you’re not getting any answers, so stop. Then everyone’s like, ‘Holy shit, dude, you’re funny. Make another video.’

“I make another video about teenage sex and pregnancy. [Laughs.] Horrible. Then as that happened, people continued to ask me to make videos. I do a couple of freestyles, and then people are like, ‘Holy shit, dude, you can rap.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, totally.’ After that, it sort of turned into actual performances.”

Her Unique Personality

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Her “If You’re Contemplating Suicide” Video

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Angel Haze: “I used to be suicidal. I take it that everyone’s been suicidal once or twice in their life, even if you dare to admit it or not. But for me it was a time where I was really bleak mentally, so I would honestly contemplate on trying to kill myself.

“I learned a lot over time. There’s just this relentless amount of strength inside of a person who thinks to kill themselves, who tries to kill themselves, and can not do it for whatever reason. It’s almost like your veins turn tough skin and you can’t cut through them.


 

Somebody wrote me about how they got raped and they were having a baby by the rapist, and their family abandoned them and they were gonna kill themselves. When they heard my poem, they decided that they were gonna raise their baby and they were gonna love it regardless of where it came from. I was like, ‘Woah, that’s amazing.’


 

"So when you find you have a purpose that’s even beyond understanding—because everybody has a purpose, it just depends on what you do with it—you kind of just learned that nothing is a tragic as it seems. No matter how hard it seems, life isn’t over.”

"I actually felt good about [the video]. I don’t read my YouTube comments because I don’t really like to cloud my air with negativity. Most of the messages I got were from my Tumblr, and people would be like, ‘Dude, the poem saved my life. You’ll never get it and I don’t think you ever will.’

"Somebody wrote me about how they got raped and they were having a baby by the rapist, and their family abandoned them and they were gonna kill themselves. When they heard my poem, they decided that they were gonna raise their baby and they were gonna love it regardless of where it came from. I was like, ‘Woah, that’s amazing.’”

Taking Rap Seriously

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Angel Haze: “I would do full freestyles over a beat, put it up on Tumblr, and it’d get a like 2,000 notes. Then more and more people gravitated and were like, ‘Holy shit, you’re good.’ Then the fanbase started. I find that when you don’t really force yourself on people, they tend to listen more and be really into it. It was cool for me then and I was super stoked.

“[I did the ‘Lotus Flower Bitch’ freestyle] was because I cannot stand that song. [Laughs.] I fucking hate that song. I’m so sick of hearing it on the radio, so sick of hearing people sing that shit. So I just made that up on the spot. It was continuous, but I ended up editing it all over the video because we all know Wale is sensitive, and I don’t have time to be beefing with niggas like him.

“I could [freestyle] off the top, but I’m not going to pretend that I did. I wrote it and it was like whatever. Then I put it out. It came that way, and it was super easy for me. I used to put out a song every single day just because I could. As I got more complicated, I guess I started spreading them out more. The first time I got recognition for a song, it was the ‘Fall for Your Type’ Drake remix.


 

[I did the ‘Lotus Flower B***h’ freestyle] was because I cannot stand that song. [Laughs.] I hate that song. I’m so sick of hearing it on the radio, so sick of hearing people sing it. I ended up editing it all over the video because we all know Wale is sensitive, and I don’t have time to be beefing with n****s like him.


 

“Music was never really a hobby. I never knew I wanted to do it until I met a guy who became my best friend and he kind of introduced the idea to me. After that, I was totally immersed in it. This was recently. I was 17 and I just continued doing it.

“Le’Roy Benros is my manager. He found me on Youtube and he was relentless. He stalked me. Like, ‘Yo. Yo, yo. I have to talk to you. Call me.’ For three weeks he kept insisting that I call him, and I was like, ‘Bro, relax.’ They were like we love you, we wanna work with you, we wanna put this out under our trademark, and we’re just gonna blow it up for you. 

I wouldn’t talk to anyone because I’ve been approached by so many people before that that’d say, ‘We’re gonna do this for you, we’re gonna do that for you,’ and at the end of the day no one ever really came through like they promised. So it was like I’m just gonna do it on my own, and get enough attention to myself that everyone has to work with me. A you can’t really deny me type of thing.

“I called him finally and we were meeting up a week after that. He threw me on stage the first day he met me, and I was like, ‘You are an asshole.’

“My manager taught me it’s not good to oversaturate or put too much stuff out, because then people get confused by you. So for me I’ve been just learning to do what I’m told.”

Moving to New York City

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Making The "Reservation" EP

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Angel Haze:Reservation is a little introduction to me. Especially with the EP title Reservation. You know how you go to a restaurant? You reserve your place there, you know you’re gonna be there, and you’re gonna be able to sit where you want. To me, it’s like I’m making my reservation here in the industry, in the hip-hop world, and whatever, and it’s time for you guys to get to know me.

Reservation, was really a piece where I felt like I had to be as interpreted, trackwise, as possible. If you listen, you can get into what it was that I am, what I was, and what I went through. If you could relate to me that’s great. But ‘This is Me’ was the perfect because it’s like, ‘Hi, this is who I am.’

“I don’t like to go to the studio and write. A lot of people give me credit for that, but it’s like not anything spectacular. I just sit there, and in maybe a five-hour sitting I could write like six songs.


 

My manager spent a whole year telling me I wasn’t good enough to put anything out yet. Like, 'You’re not ready to get on your own.' He send me a bunch of beats, I tried to make songs, I failed. He’s like, ‘You’re not ready yet.’ So I made an effort prove him wrong, because I’m a person who enjoys being challenged. I actually just went sat down, and knocked the shit out.


 

"We did session-by-session, so each session I had at least five songs that I wanted to do. Then there were like four I wasn’t sure about. It was pretty fun. I’m the type of person that goes in the studio and don’t stop. I don’t do the play around, smoke, and do this other shit. It’s lame.

“My manager spent a whole year telling me I wasn’t good enough to put anything out yet. Like, 'You’re not ready to get on your own.' He send me a bunch of beats, I tried to make songs, I failed. He’s like, ‘You’re not ready yet.’ So I made an effort prove him wrong, because I’m a person who enjoys being challenged. I actually just went sat down, and knocked the shit out.

“Its weird, because the more thought you put into a song, the more strain it becomes. So everything that I write now, I try to let it flow. I let it write itself. It’s  easier that way.

“I was prepared for it. I planned for all of this. So when the [acclaim] came, I wasn’t really surprised. I don’t mean to sound cocky or whatever. But it’s like whatever I want in life I can actually have. So when I want something and it comes to me, I’m not surprised by it.

“It was, ‘This is me. I’m coming for your necks, asses, and faces if I have to,’ and, ‘This is me. I’m a really nice girl.’ It’s kind of like a versatile type of thing. I did this with the intention of being the next big thing. I was just going to be me as much as I could, but I was gonna make a damn good record. That was the point of it.

“[My family] actually heard all of it. They saw the video and all that other stuff. They’re like super supportive... My brother was like, ‘You, this shit’s crazy. I could hear the shit on radio everywhere now.’ I was like, ‘Oh, can you?’ My mom loved it, she never stopped playing it. ‘Werkin Girls’ is actually her ringtone. It was pretty cool.”

Making The Song, “New York”

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Her First Live Performance

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Signing to Universal Republic

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Her Relationship With Azealia Banks

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Angel Haze: “I’ve not received any recognition from any rappers outside of Waka Flocka. I don’t know why, but whatever. It’s weird because in the rap genre, everyone’s so competitive.

“He’s like emailing my manager constantly like, ‘I wanna work with her,’ and I’m like whoa, I don’t like to collab with people. Don’t do that. I just like to stay on my solo shit.


 

Azealia, we’re really cool, we’re around each other. She loves the music I make, and she thinks I’m the best female rapper. It’s amazing for me, and I love her music and I love her genuinely as a person. So it’s cool to have the person you respect, respect you.


 

“Azealia, we’re really cool, we’re around each other. She loves the music I make, and she thinks I’m the best female rapper. It’s amazing for me, and I love her music and I love her genuinely as a person. So it’s cool to have the person you respect, respect you.

“I actually met Azealia when she was coming up. I was on Twitter and she wrote me, ‘I don’t know why everyone is so focused on her,’ Brianna Perry I think, ‘When @NativeRaeen a.k.a Angel Haze is better than all of us.’ I thought it was so cute and funny.

"She’s so cool. She’s really outspoken, and I love people like that. I love people that are passionate, that they don’t allow themselves to be bullied or allow themselves to be anything other than respected. If she wants, she goes after it. That’s a really great quality to have.”

Defining Her Sexuality

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Angel Haze: “As a person, I just always felt that it’s really important for people to know that to love, you have to be without bias. You have to be without a certain standard that is condescending. So for me it’s important as a person, honestly.


 

I was actually engaged before to a Marine which sucks. We were young, I was like 17 and I was in love with him. He’s like the only boy I’ve ever loved, and it’s so strange.


 

"I’ve learned that if you stripped yourself of everything that you’ve been taught in this world—taught to believe that’s been passed down from a bible to a book, your mother, your father—you’re really open to everything.

“I learned that you can love anyone. Any person, any gender; cisgender, transgender, hermaphrodite. I don’t care. What it all comes down to for me is if you make me feel great, then I can love you. But I haven’t met anyone who can do that for me yet.

“I was actually engaged before to a Marine which sucks. We were young, I was like 17 and I was in love with him. He’s like the only boy I’ve ever loved, and it’s so strange.”

The Future

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