Angel Haze has been steadily building a respectable fan base over the last year or so. With the release of the well received Reservation mixtape and the Voices EP, this marks her third digitally released project this year. Recently, she showed up in the Iron Mike cypher on the BET awards, hosted by none other then the legendary RZA. Personally, I find her to be one of the more promising young Emcees to be gaining acknowledgement lately.
Her most recent release Classick is a six-track ep/mixtape. Her usual fast-whip deliveries are here in fullest. These types of techniques have been done plenty of times before, but Angel manages to make it seem refreshing and interesting, at least most of the time. The opening track Bitch Bad has Angel weaving in and out of fairly clever analogies with why some women unfortunately sell themselves short in the hopes of finding affection from men. She further explains how these relationships have negative consequences by giving young, impressionable boys horrible beliefs on how their supposed to treat their girlfriends (which is to say, be abusive and they'll stick around). It really depicts the vicious cycle that goes on quite vividly. Unfortunately, the track is followed up by the rather lackluster Gossip Folks. The repetitive hook and the poor punchlines leave a lot to be desired. I didn't find my head bobbing along or wanting to repeat any of the bars, which isn't very good. Angel Haze's strongest suit is definitely in the more smoother, conscious, message-driven material, as her hard body game needs some work.
The EP continues with Jay-Z's own Song Cry, giving us a pretty straight-forward love song. Although the message and flow of Angel's lyrics are admirable, her lyrics end up detracting from the song more often then not. On Love of my Life, the following track, Angel demonstrates a good knack for singing, able to stay on tune without much difficulty. Although she's certainly no Lauryn Hill, her potential is very present on the track. Doo Whoop (That Thing) is a warning track for the women and men discussed in the aforementioned Bitch Bad. The energetic performance and to the point lyrics make it the best song on the project, personally. On the flip side, being such a short project, I did myself feeling as if I just heard the same song a few tracks before. Had there been more space between then, I don't imagine I would have felt that way. The last song goes over Eminem's Cleaning Out My Closet, depicting the gruesome and heart-wrenching sexual abuse she experience as a child. The track would almost be great if it wasn't for the last twelve bars or so, where she turns the song's direction to a more upbeat, hopeful lyrics. I understand fully what she was trying to do, but ultimately, I find that the song would have been better off had she cut it out. The integrity of the entire song is unfortunately compromised because of this.
Being a short mixtape, considerable weight is lifted off of Angel Haze's shoulders in terms of productions. With the exception of Lupe's Bad Bitch reindition, all the chosen instrumentals on this project are arguable classics, showing that Angel has a good ear for beats. The clean recording shows adequate professionalism, and Angel makes the wise choice of staying away from any overly catchy records in the hopes of catching potential listeners ears.
Overall I have to say it's a decent project. The shortfalls of the ep/mixtape inevitably prevent it from being a more commendable release from one of the new generations hopefuls. If you haven't listened to Angel Haze before, I would recommend her Reservation project she dropped back this summer, which is I feel is her best mixtape to date. Although the messages and directions of the songs meet expectations handsomely, I feel like Angel needs to work on her lyricism more, particularly her actual rhyming.
Score: C+
Favorite Track: Love of my life
Least favorite track: Gossip Girls
No guest verses
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