Photos by Mathieu Young

Angel Haze: "Cleaning Out My Closet" (via SoundCloud)

Angel Haze is going stir crazy. When I reach the 21-year-old rapper, she's cooling her heels in Williamsburg a week after Hurricane Sandy knocked the lights out in her financial-district apartment. "No one building should have all this power," she deadpans, talking about her temporary Brooklyn residence. But her Sandy experience was no joke. "I thought I was going to die," says Haze. "It's strange because you think of New York as the invincible city that nothing ever happens to, and that just happened."

But now she's particularly agitated because she's supposed to be working on her debut album for Universal Republic in L.A. with unlikely collaborators including hat-friendly pop-rock bro Jason Mraz and dubstep heavy Bassnectar. But, as she says, "I'm just here, existing, trapped in purgatory!" The Michigan-raised, New York City-based MC is a young artist, but she's an audacious one: Through her EPs Reservation and Classick, she has sprinted out of the underground with alarming determination and focus. She raps (incredibly well), sings (roughly and effectively), and bares her soul and her fangs in equal measure; for every brash play for dominance like "New York", there's something like Classick highlight "Cleaning Out My Closet", where she details being sexually abused as a seven-year-old and how it scarred her psyche. She's also taking guitar and singing lessons, and learning how to make beats. This is not the kind of person who takes kindly to uncontrollable setbacks.

"I love Jason Mraz. We're soul mates."

Pitchfork: What kind of reactions have you had to "Cleaning Out My Closet"? Have you heard from anyone who's been in a similar situation?

Angel Haze: Yeah, actually. I got a ton of Facebook messages saying, "Wow, this brought up really bad feelings for me and forced me to face it, thank you for doing it." I got more from boys than girls actually, which is really shocking for me. I did that song for one particular reason: to extract my own demons. So, honestly, I tried not to acknowledge the response that much. I get so many questions about it, but really, I'm shying away from everything around that song more than I am headstrong and wanting to delve into it.

Pitchfork: Did any tracks get left off Classick that you had wanted to do?

AH: I wanted it to [rap over] 2Pac's "Keep Ya Head Up" but there was no freakin' instrumental for it online. I have the song written out still-- it addressed environmental struggles from an urban kid's point of view. But there's no beat, so.

Pitchfork: I noticed you revealed your Jason Mraz fandom on Twitter recently.

AH: I love him. We're soul mates. We're supposed to do something together when I'm out in L.A., which is why I'm so anxious to fly out. But I'm stuck here, because my life hates me.

Pitchfork: What's your favorite Jason Mraz song?

AH: Maybe "Live High", or "Beautiful Mess", or "Rocket Man", or "Wordplay". I have a lot. I like a lot of acoustic guitar rock like that: Justin Nozuka, Jack Johnson, James Morrison, and a billion other people that no-one ever knows.

Pitchfork: Are you playing guitar on the new album?

AH: I just started the album. It's really early. I've got about two songs I know for sure are going on there, but I've recorded a ton with other people. I'm receiving all kinds of training; Bassnectar is teaching me to make beats, so I'm trying to add every little instrumental bit that I can into the new album. I told the label I wanted a month to just dedicate myself to my album, which is why I'm supposed to be going going to L.A. I hope it's going to be done by the end of December.

Pitchfork: Who are some producers you're working with?

AH: That's still in development, but there have been talks with Emile [Haynie] and Salaam Remi, and I worked with some guys from the UK called Rudimental. The rest is up to who I meet when I'm in L.A.

Pitchfork: What do you want the album to feel and sound like?

AH: I want it to sound musical and much bigger than the last thing I put out. I want it feel like it's been shaped very intricately; I just want it to sound like music.