Angel Haze remixes Same Love

In case you missed this last week (because I did), here's US rapper Angel Haze putting her own spin on Macklemore's pro-gay, pro-acceptance, anti-bigotry anthem Same Love.

The original is, rightly, being hailed as an important milestone. The lyrics challenge rap music's default position of homophobia ("If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me / Have you read the YouTube comments lately? / "Man, that's gay" gets dropped on the daily"). Sometimes the lyrics are a little simplistic - but its heart is in the right place and it deservingly won the clunkily-titled "best video with a message" award at this year's MTV VMAs.

Interestingly, though, frontman Ben Haggerty asserts his own heterosexuality within the first four lines. Angel Haze makes no such caveats. Her opening salvo is stark and brutal: At age 13 my mother knew I wasn't straight / She didn't understand but she had so much to say / She sat me on the couch, looked me straight in my face / And said, 'You’ll burn in hell or probably die of AIDS'.

With more raw power than a nuclear plant, the full seven-minute version will take your breath away.



Same Love is part of the rapper's 30 Gold project, where she's freestyling over other people's tracks every day for a month on her Soundcloud page. Her acoustic version of Wrecking Ball is highly recommended, while her take on Jay-Z's Tom Ford is better than the original.

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