Rapper Angel Haze: "I Don't Want to Be a Rap Star—Rap Sucks"

A charming rising rapper spitting vitriol about other rappers is a tried-and-true way to get some publicity, but a fresh-face MC talking trash about rap as a genre? That's pretty ballsy.

Angel Haze is a 21-year-old, Michigan-born rapper who now calls New York her home (it's also the name of her sick signature song). Fuse sat down with Haze and found out about her unusual influences (Jason Mraz?!), what her next video will be and why she doesn't dig rap stars. 

"I want to be a rock star, I don't want to be a rap star. Rap sucks. F--k rappers," Haze says bluntly. "At the end of the day, rock stars have way more fun and they don't have all the stigma and role model responsibility thing attached to them. As a rock star, you're going to do what you want. I'm going to snort coke off a magazine if I want to, and no one is going to stop me. I just want to be that type of person that is all rock—no games, none of that bullsh-t."

In fact, Haze says rap isn't her main source of musical inspiration. Although she cites Eminem as a lyrical influence, she also mentions Train, Jason Mraz and New Radicals—in other words, the least-likely artists you'd expect a young rapper to name check.

"I didn't really get into rap, which is sad," Haze says of her youth. "But it's coming. I'm learning still." As far as beginners go, it's safe to say she's starting ahead of the curve. And as a student of hip hop, Haze isn't bothered by the inevitable comparisons to other female MCs.

"Before Nicki Minaj became as extreme as she is now, she was compared to Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown constantly," Haze points out. "I feel like you have to go through that stage to come into your own. You have to be everyone else before people get the idea that you are you. Then they start comparing all the newcomers to you. So it's like initiation for me. But none of us are alike—the only thing we have in common is genitalia."

And as you might have picked up from the ominous "to be continued..." at the end of her "New York" video, there's more on the way. "The next video I drop will be 'Wicked Moon,'" she tells Fuse. "And that video is going to make a lot of people think, 'What is her problem?'"

Watch the video above for our full interview with Angel Haze.