Angel Haze, tour review: Rapid-fire rhymes from a fiery rapper

This troubled rapper seemed to be battling her own demons, giving an intense performance throughout a restless set, says Andre Paine
Quickly fired up the crowd: Angel Haze
Rex
Andre Paine18 January 2016

Judging by the woolly hats among the audience, a concrete basement in Hackney is not the ideal mid-January music venue.

Fortunately, the fierce rhymes and motivational catchphrase (“make some f***ing noise”) of Detroit rapper Angel Haze soon warmed up this crowd.

“This shit feels like a good ass homecoming,” roared the former Raeen Wilson, although the claim her London gigs keep getting bigger was wishful thinking. She previously played venues twice this size, but leaking her debut online in frustration at the release schedule wasn’t a smart career move (the album limped to No 196).

“Everybody hated on me for about a year,” Haze told us of the row with her label. She came out fighting in this chilly room with defiant songs from self-released mixtape Back to the Woods.

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Based on her lyrics, this troubled rapper is also battling her own demons. On Fire was a hard-hitting account of attempted suicide and a spell in a psychiatric ward. “I swear to God, I almost lost my mind,” she confessed over slamming beats.

Her intense performance was perhaps a form of therapy for Haze, who invited volunteers to dance on stage and dived into the crowd for the rapid-fire Babe Ruthless. A fan lost a shoe in the excitement, so she offered to buy a new pair.

When she sang over DJ Tk Kayembe’s clicking rhythm on Moonrise Kingdom, it never had the impact of her fiery rapping. But you had to admire a restless set that ranged from the soulful to the comical (during The Wolves she urged us to howl along).

On the encore of Battle Cry, combining a sultry vocal and stinging rhymes, Haze resembled Rihanna and fellow Detroit rapper Eminem. She deserves to be as big as both of them.

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