A Field Guide To Angel Haze

Over the past few weeks, we've been hearing a lot about Angel Haze – and we don't mean that sweet new strain of weed your dealer just got in. No, we mean Angel Haze the rapper and future daughter-in-law of Alec Baldwin, who's made the news after getting a bit annoyed by the public's insistence on downplaying the hot and heaviness of her relationship with Ireland Baldwin. 

But friends, there is far more to Angel Haze than just a proclivity for locking lips with beautiful babes – in addition to being an outspoken advocate of same sex relationships, she's also a successful musician and one badass bitch. So let's learn a bit more about her, shall we?

Raykeea Angel Wilson (that would be Haze's government name, guys) was born July 10, 1991, in the city of Detroit, Michigan to a military family of African and Native American descent (in case you're wondering where her gorgeous looks come from). Her childhood was, shall we say, a bit cloistered: as a member of the Pentecostal Greater Apostolic Faith (which Haze describes as a cult), Haze was barred from many experiences the rest of us would consider ordinary. As she told The Guardian: 

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. Church was on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. When they did revivals it was every day. I used to just crawl under the bench and try to sleep.

Luckily for Haze (and for us), she was able to get out from under the church's thumb at the age of fifteen, when her mother moved the family to Brooklyn after falling out with the church's leaders. And once she had her freedom, she more than made up for lost time, learning everything she could about pop culture (and rap music), and perfecting the art of giving no fucks. 

Despite her late arrival to the pop culture party, Haze took to hip hop like a fish to water. A few short years after arriving in Brooklyn, she was already releasing critically acclaimed mix tapes, and working her way up the ladder to hip hop notoriety. You may have heard of her last year when she and Azealia Banks got into a tiff on Twitter, we were more interested in watching her rack up artistic collaborations (did you know she collaborated with Ludacris to do the theme song for "22 Jump Street"?)

And, of course, we've been very interested in her love life. Haze has never been shy about discussing her sexuality: all the way back in 2012, she was publicly open about her pansexual identity, telling The Guardian that, "Love is boundary-less... If you can make me feel, if you can make me laugh – and that's hard – then I can be with you. I don't care if you have a vagina or if you're a hermaphrodite or whatever." So it should come as no surprise that she had no qualms about pursuing a relationship with Ireland Baldwin (who she met during Fashion Week thanks to Baldwin's cousin), and even less of a surprise that, once the two had gone from friends to girlfriends, Haze had no qualms about publicizing their connection through smooch-filled Instagrams.

(And hey, were it not for Instagrams famously restrictive content rules, perhaps Baldwin and Haze would have shown even more of their relationship online: in her recent statement (the one where she clarified that she and Baldwin are in fact, dating and not just friends), Haze seemed to have absolutely no problem reminding the world that, yes, she is totally tapping that. Please, Angel, tell us more: seriously, we can't get enough detail about what you and Ireland are getting up to.)

But don't let Haze's (admittedly intriguing) sex life distract you from her actual career: after the release of her latest album (which dropped last December), Haze has been touring the globe and dishing out her delicious brand of hip hop to adoring audiences – including a few gigs where she's opened for none other than Kanye West. (Wondering what her opinions on Yeezy are? It turns out she's quite the fan: “To be on the same stage as one of my favourite artists is just insane. I admire his honesty, his brashness may be hard for some people to deal with, but it’s always real and it comes from a place that you know he’s completely passionate about. It’s inspiring to see someone who is true to who they are.”)

We don't know where Angel Haze will end up, or if she'll actually end up marrying Ireland Baldwin (that thing about being Alec Baldwin's future daughter-in-law was a joke, guys). But we do know that wherever she goes, we'll happily follow... especially if she posts more sapphic sexiness online along the way.