The first facts to be noticed, with Angel Haze, are about her identity and her life experience. Originally from the Detroit area, Raykeea Raeen-Roes Wilson - or more simply Roes, her future stage name - is not only an African American, through a father who was murdered shortly after her birth. Through her mother, she is also a Cherokee. The title of her Reservation mixtape, actually, refers to Indian reserves.
The rapper, though, didn't grow up in any of these communities, but in another, the Apostolic Faith Church. And as a child in that religious movement, growing up aside the modern world, she's been brainwashed and sexually abused. Therefore, it is at a later stage, when she settled in Brooklyn by the end of the 2000's, that Angel Haze started rapping.
Rap music was entirely new to her, but she embraced it immediately. Her main influences were the stars of the day, Lil Wayne and Drake, which is quite perceptible when listening to her music and hearing her moving from the stylistic acrobatics of the former, to the tormented posture of the latter.
On some tracks, she wants to show that she is verbally agile, like with the bangers on the mixtape, the excellent "Werkin' Girls", and that "New York" song where, on an sample from Gil Scott-Heron, she accelerates her flow and paraphrases 50 Cent. On the club-oriented "Jungle Fever", she engages with Das Racist's Kool A.D. into a playful dialogue. And elsewhere, on "Supreme", "Realest", and "Drop It", Angel Haze shows up as proud, haughty, and full of self-confidence.
At other times, though, she is a hopeless romantic, who raps and sings low. Such is the case with the autobiographic "This Is Me", when she talks about the painful journey she went through with her mother. Same with "Sufferings First", when she uses the music of Sava Tavares's "Balancê". Same again with the introspective "Smile n Hearts", and with the strange but convincing "Wicked Moon", when she fights her demons, with some help from Nicole Wray.
In a similar vein, Angel Haze delivers a few ballads, such as "CHI (Need to Know)". And of course, there's the sad piano on "Castle On A Cloud", the song about the sexual aggression she's been a victim of, and its consequences.
Angel Haze, though, is known for other reasons, especially here, in Europe, where she had some success with the aforementioned "New York" song, and was praised by French icon Catherine Deneuve. The rapper says she is pansexual, she has androgynous looks, and beyond rap, she's been a partner to Ireland Baldwin, the daughter of Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin. As such, she's become some queer figure, just when homosexuality was less of a taboo in hip-hop.
Her sexual ambiguity is apparent here, on "Hot Like Fire", with its Aaliyah sample, and the nice "Gypsy Letters", when she talks to lovers of undetermined genders. This aspect of her identity, though, and her public image, should not hide the essentials: despite her vast and heterogeneous style - or maybe thanks to it - Reservation has a few strong moments.