If you turn the clocks back almost a decade and return to the rampant rap days of 2012, New York’s own Angel Haze would be front and centre, taking the scene by storm and tearing up the blueprint. At just twenty years of age, Haze was one of the most hyped and talked about artists of her generation, and with fierce tracks like ‘New York’ and ‘Werkin’ Girls’, along with one of the best debut hip-hop albums of the decade, she was exceeding all expectations.
Come 2015, and Haze was continuing to impress, dropping her sophomore album, ‘Back to the Woods’ and turning the game on its head. A far darker and more personal release, her sophomore album would be the last new music we’d hear from Haze for five long years.
While we’ve all been holding out for new music, Haze has used her time away from the spotlight to good effect, working on herself and embarking on a period of stark self-discovering. Now, five long years since she last blew up our speakers, Haze is back and sounding better than ever with the evocative new single, ‘Never Seen’.
A sign of her transformation and maturity, ‘Never Seen’ illustrates exactly how Haze has grown during her time away from the spotlight, echoing with a whirlwind of experience that reflects upon the success and public attention she received in her early twenties. Speaking openly to PAPER, Haze explained how she explored new sounds and styles in ‘Never Seen’, "I wanted to play with different tones and intertwine certain phrases to create a woozy, dreamlike impression. This song is my daydream of a life bigger than my eyes can hold. I'm massive. Take it all in."
The first glimpse of Haze’s reincarnation, ‘Never Seen’ is taken from her upcoming and highly anticipated new EP, ‘Girl With the Gun’. Outside of music, Haze’s period of self-discovery also saw her beginning to explore painting as an outlet for her spiritual healing. As such, The ‘Girl With the Gun’ artwork is one of her original pieces and aims to bring the project's larger themes to life visually.
"This record, to me, is about taking a shot on yourself, seeing through all the fog and failure and expectation, and understanding that the real target is purpose," Haze says.
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