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Detroit rapper Angel Haze will vote for the first time this election cycle
She doesn't know who she's for, but she is not voting for Donald Trump
The musician describes herself as "a liberal, if anything" in terms of political affiliation
Angel Haze does not watch cable and does not even have a television.
Like many millennials, the 23-year-old Detroit rapper says she gets her news on social media outlets like Twitter. And this election cycle, one giant social media presence caught her attention: Serial tweeter and billionaire business mogul Donald Trump.
“I don’t consider myself a political person,” Haze told CNN. “But, right now, I’m following politics because Donald Trump has a chance of winning and that is very devastating for me.”
The Republican presidential candidate’s rhetoric on banning Muslims immigrants, and his proposal to build a wall on the U.S.’s southern border are issues that Haze particularly disagrees with.
“The world was not made with borders … we built them. We made these constructs and these confines,” Haze said. “If you have d—–bags like Donald Trump saying you can’t come in here or we’re going to make it extra hard for you to come here, how do people learn? How do you experience culture? How do you connect with other people?”
And Haze, who grew up in what she describes as a “deranged Christian faith-based” cult, says escaping her own figurative borders changed her life, and this has become a prominent theme in her music.
“I grew up in a cult. I only knew three people my entire life — my mom, my brother and myself,” Haze said. “It was really, really dark.”
In her 2013 hit “Battle Cry,” featuring Sia, from her album “Dirty Gold,” Haze opens up about overcoming various forms of child abuse and opening up to the world. Here is how the lyrics go:
“I woke up one Sunday morning, stopped believing in Jesus/Stopped believing in churches, I stopped believing in preachers/I realized I was a teacher … Despite the fact that it gets hard, you take it all and you still go/Take the sun and you still grow, lose the light and you still glow.”
Haze, who left home when she turned twenty, says her music career has given her opportunity to travel the world and interact with people of various backgrounds and cultures.
And this election cycle, Haze, who describes herself as “a liberal, if anything,” will vote for the first time.
“I think it’s important to vote for anybody, but Donald Trump,” Haze said. “I don’t know who I’m for. I like Bernie Sanders the most. I think he’s adorable and old and incredibly tolerant for his age … so right now, I’m leaning more towards Bernie because he thinks about the people.”
Watch Haze get political in the video above and check out more from the series.