TV

Angel Haze on “Catfish” and helping a homophobic mom love her bisexual daughter on “Truce”

Editor’s note: We spoke with Angel after the piece was originally published and they confirmed their preferred pronouns, and we have edited the piece to reflect that.

Angel Haze says they’re not great at giving advice, but after you see them on MTV tonight, you’ll beg to differ. The out musician joins Nev Schulman on an all new episode of Catfish: The TV Show, helping a guy named Harold track down his internet love interest, Armani. Then right after, Angel and Nev host Truce, a series about helping people repair relationships with loved ones and friends. In the premiere, Angel is integral in reconnecting a young woman with her mother who refuses to believe in her daughter’s bisexuality.

We talked with Angel about their experiences on both shows and how they have given them new perspectives on similar situations in their own life.

*Caution: Mild spoilers ahead!*

AfterEllen.com: I loved watching you on Truce. Can you tell me a little bit about how you got involved with the show?

Angel Haze: Actually Nev approached me. He’s a producer on the show so I assume it comes from him and [director] David Metzler. But he told me that him and his brother, Ariel, were talking about this show and he said he wanted someone really cool to do it with him and then Ariel mentioned me so he found me and we did Catfish and things like that. It was super super cool to actually start on Catfish and realize I like Nev as a person-I think he’s super dope-and then go into Truce, knowing that, it was really easy to make that transition. Nothing out of the ordinary, I don’t think.

AE: Are you the kind of person your friends come to for advice?

AH: No! Who would listen to me? I mean, I try but for me, more than advice, it’s more about trying to be a help to people, regardless of anything. I don’t like to be that person who’s constantly preaching, even though that’s what people think I do. I’m like, no. I’m just honestly a Ron Swanson when it counts, you know? But I think it’s easy when it comes to giving people actual help and when they ask for it, it’s great. It’s such an alleviating sort of feeling to be yo, like this is what happened and for me to say this is what you need to go do, right now. And so it’s cool when you put it that way, it’s really cool. But I don’t like giving advice because I suck at it.

AE: So going into the conversation with Briyanza and her mom, was your goal to change her mind or did you want to try and facilitate any kind of relationship?

AH: You know what, the craziest shit about that show was-Nev and I even agreed to separate and allow Nev to go first because I was that scared of her mom. It hit too close to home for me. I was like, I’m going to end up freaking out and saying something and there were a few moments in there that I don’t think made it in but I was like, “God, I can’t deal.” One of those. I feel like once you learn to see that everybody has a perspective, you know-perspectives are alike assholes and, at the end of the day, you just need to keep your shit clean. You don’t need to project what you feel on people. You don’t need to do any of that shit. And for me it was important to go into that and understand that everybody has a point of view, and she’s not wrong for having that point of view, even though I don’t agree with it. It wasn’t something I wanted to try and alter. I just wanted her to understand that her point of view is going to make her lose someone she cares deeply about and if she can’t alter it, then she needs to do a better job of hiding it. That was it. I think it gave me a lot of peace, too, to seriously understand it. My mom, she won’t say shit to me. And our situation is similar in the way we have parents who are very religious, but her mom loved her to death. You see that in the way that she reacts to the notion of even losing her daughter.

AE: I was shocked.

AH: I was super shocked. I was more shocked than you were. [laughs] I don’t know if you can see it in my face, but God, whoa, what happened, you know? And I thought that was dope. I thought she was dope for that. At the beginning, I was like, “Ew, you’re gross. You make me sick.” By the end she’s like, “Can I be your mom?” I’m like, “No, I already have a crazy mom.” But it was that cool. And people make progress that fast, but you just have to learn at which angle to come at it from. It was really cool.

AE: So did you come away from that experience thinking you could do something with your own mom, similarly?

AH: [laughs] You know, I did. I did, actually. I tried and I failed miserably. But the important part for me was that I made the effort. Even though it wasn’t reciprocated, I felt proud of myself and I feel free because of it. I was like, “Yo, I totally understand that you have your point of view and I have mine, and I want to try to start over” and blah blah blah. It didn’t go the way I wanted it to. But I made an effort. What Truce taught me was if I’m going to try and bring other people together, I need to have some semblance of that in my own life, and try not to hold as many grudges. I tried, you know?

AE: Black homophobia has been talked about a lot recently with shows like Empire, and I’m sure you get asked about it all the time too, working in hip hop. Do you still see a lot of these kinds of things happening to people you know, parents who turn their kids away because they are gay or bisexual?

AH: Oh yeah. My little cousin was texting me about it this morning. She’s turning 23 this year and I just feel so sad because her mom hasn’t given her a birthday present since she came out at 12. No “I love you,” no birthday present, no anything. If anything, this is confirmation for me. As much as I hate to talk about in this way, I view truth and I view my life outside of my music-because my music has changed so much and it’s all love songs now, as I’m sure you know. I felt like I needed to take my desire for philanthropic ventures and put them in motion. So for me, doing something like Truce on such a large scale-this is fucking MTV, it’s going to out millions of people around the world-like people are going to be, if not enlightened in some way, they’re going to be forced to look at their own point of view. If they’re not stubborn enough to turn it off.

But it’s teaching people something. It’s showing them something different and exposing them-the idea of homophobia, the concept is fucking stupid. You’re hating someone for their ability to love. I feel like if people don’t say it more, if it doesn’t reach a mainstream media platform, we’re going to experience the same shit over and over and over again. It’s like Black Lives Matter. Black people-if we didn’t stand up for ourselves, nobody’s gonna do it, you know? And so, for me, this is philanthropic. I go and I think about what I want for my kinds, what kind of world I’d want my kids to live in. I don’t want them to deal with this bull shit. And it makes me sad people still have to go through it every day.

AE: One of the things I love about Catfish is that it isn’t glamorous. It goes into real people’s homes in America and those people are often queer, people of color, across all class lines. Is that something you liked about it too?

AH: To be honest, I’m not going to bullshit you, I totally thought it was fake. I went into it like, “Where’s the script?” And then it was real and I was super shocked. After that, I had tons of more respect for the show and for Nev and for the people who put themselves out there because this shit is all real. This is what America is-a bunch of crazy ass people trying to meet each other. But it’s rad. How can you not want to be a part of something like that? I feel like I’m only doing good for myself and other people.

AE: You talk a little bit about having your own catfish on the show. Looking back after this experience, do you see something you would have done differently with your catfish?

AH: Oh yeah, definitely. I would have tried not to be so angry about it because I was angry in the episode of Catfish like I was when I met the person that was pretending, like when I was younger. All I wanted to know, like, why? What is your issue, you psychopath? But then you talk to people like Tamila and you understand that they’re coming from an angle: She doesn’t feel beautiful, she doesn’t feel like anyone’s going to want her as her, so she spends her time doing that because of her own insecurities and that’s something I can sympathize with. That’s something I can understand. And so I feel like I wouldn’t have been as harsh if I could go back.

AE: Did you watch the episode where there was a lesbian pretending to be Bow Wow?

AH: Oh my god, yes. I died. I lived. I died and I lived at the same time.

AE: Has anyone ever pretended to be you?

AH: Oh my god, yes. It’s so awful. If you even look on the internet, like on Facebook and search me–there are so many different pages of people pretending to be me, it’s scary actually. And Facebook–fucking Facebook–deleted my personal profile as a fake because some fake reported me as a fake. I was like, are you serious, Facebook? But this is life. It’s just funny that people do it. I mean, I suppose if I’m a catalyst for someone to feel better about themselves, I can be OK with it, but to an extent. A very, very limited extent.

AE: If there are people finding out about you for the first time from Catfish or Truce, is there an ideal first song you’d want them to listen to of yours?

AH: I would recommend they started with my first EP, Reservation, and then recommend them jump forward to the new stuff I’ve released in the last month. But, I mean, whatever happens, you know?

AE: What do you think that people will decide about you after seeing the show?

AH: You know what–do you like me on the show?

AE: Yeah! I was very happy to see you on it!

AH: I feel like you get the gist of who I am. If you’ve heard of me before and you’ve been with me through label representation and the myriad of changes I’ve undergone in the past two or three years, then you’d feel confused about who I actually am. And I feel like once you watch this show, you get it. I’m fucking carefree, I’m fun and funny, and I think I come off as a genuinely cool person who wants to give people a chance. And I think that’s important because a lot of the time, especially with the internet, you don’t really know who you’re dealing with and I’m not a good actor so what you get is what you fucking see and I just hope it plays out that way.

AE: And as far as music goes, I know you’re actively writing and recording. When can we expect the new album?

AH: I’m working on, actually, something that’s sort of like a mixtape EP, a lot like Reservation right now for the summer. Probably by the beginning of next year my album will be done because I’ve been working on it for a year now. I’m super critical of myself, every last measure, so it’s just taking a while.

AE: When we last talked you said you were doing a lot more singing on this one.

AH: Definitely, definitely. I’m mixing it up because I rap and I have fun rapping but singing is my first love and I’m a melody person. If you’re around me all the time, all I’m doing is singing, singing, singing. So it’s like why would I annoy other people with my voice when I can annoy the world? That’s sort of where I’m at right now, to be honest. But I’m stoked for the world to finally hear what I’ve been working on because it’s pretty cool.

Catfish: The TV Show airs tonight on MTV at 10/9c. Truce comes on immediately after at 11.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button