Dirty Gold

Dirty Gold is the debut studio album by American rapper Angel Haze. It was released on December 30, 2013, by Island Records and Republic Records.[2] The 12-song effort features production from Markus Dravs, Mike Dean, Greg Kurstin, Malay, Rudimental and A Tribe Called Red, and a track written by Australian singer-songwriter Sia.[3][4][5] The album was supported by two singles: "Echelon (It's My Way)" and "Battle Cry" featuring Sia; along with the promotional single, "No Bueno".

Dirty Gold
Studio album by
Angel Haze
ReleasedDecember 30, 2013 (2013-12-30)
RecordedJanuary–June 2013[1]
GenreHip hop, R&B
Length53:15
Label
Producer
Angel Haze chronology
New York EP
(2012)		 Dirty Gold
(2013)		 Back to the Woods
(2015)
Singles from Dirty Gold
  1. "Echelon (It's My Way)"
    Released: October 15, 2013
  2. "Battle Cry"
    Released: January 9, 2014

Background

In July 2012, Angel Haze released her EP, Reservation for free online. It was met with critical acclaim, receiving an 88/100 score at Metacritic.[6] On the same year, she took part in the BET Hip Hop Awards' Cypher. She was also featured on Funk Volume artist Dizzy Wright's mixtape Free SmokeOut Conversations, on the remixed track for "Can't Trust Em". On her 2012 mixtape Classick, Haze recorded a cover of Eminem’s 2002 song, "Cleanin' Out My Closet". Earbuddy's John Downey wrote, "Haze’s take on Slim Shady’s classic tune might be the superior product."[7] It was announced that Universal Republic Records was going defunct, making artists, including Haze, move from its roster to the revived Republic Records.[8]

Release and promotion

In May 2013, Haze debuted a track that was not included on Dirty Gold, titled "No Bueno", at a performance in London.[9] On June 2, 2013, the song was released as the first promotional single.[10] On December 18, 2013, Haze leaked the album in its entirety on her SoundCloud page. The leak happened following a dispute with her record label which Haze wrote about in a series of tweets expressing her outrage. Executives for the record company told Haze that if she finished recording her album before the summer, they would release Dirty Gold in 2013.[11] It was scheduled for a January 2014 release, but was later pushed back to March 3, 2014.[12][13]

Hours after she leaked the album without the approval of the label, who had allegedly taken it down soon after the songs had spread across the Internet, Haze stated on Twitter that after talking with the executives, they agreed to release Dirty Gold on December 30, 2013 in the United States and the United Kingdom.[14] The album debuted on the UK Albums Chart (5 January 2014) at number 196. The record company also confirmed it was starting work towards a physical release of the album, which was scheduled for release in early in 2014 as it could not be manufactured by the end of December 2013.[15]

Singles

On August 27, 2013, the album's lead single, titled "Echelon (It's My Way)", premiered on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show.[16] On October 2, 2013, its music video premiered on Angel Haze's VEVO.[17] The Markus Dravs-produced song was made available for purchase on October 15, 2013.[18]

On January 9, 2014, "Battle Cry" featuring Sia, was serviced to urban contemporary radio in the United Kingdom as the album's second single.[19]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic66/100[20]
Review scores
SourceRating
The A.V. ClubC[21]
Clash6/10[22]
Consequence of SoundC+[23]
The Guardian[24]
Now[25]
Pitchfork Media5.9/10[26]
Spin5/10[27]
Tiny Mix Tapes[28]
XXL (M)[29]

Dirty Gold received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a 66 score based on 19 reviews.[20] Rowan Savage of Tiny Mix Tapes gave the album four and a half stars out of five, saying "Dirty Gold feels like a statement, an arrival."[28] In a mixed review, Spin gave the album a five out of ten, saying "Haze's attempt to appear undefinable and resist categorization (as Dirty Gold's conversational interludes attest) is a laudable pursuit, but it leaves the record unfocused."[27] In a more negative review, Kevin Ritchie of Now gave the album two out of five stars, saying "Haze is positioning herself as a top 40 infiltrator, which is fine, but she’s also diluted her uniqueness."[25] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian gave the album four out of five stars, saying "It's a flawed debut, but it's also a brave and individual one: its best bits are flatly great, its attempt to harness pop-rap to serious topics is a pretty intrepid move."[24]

Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club gave the album a C, saying "A labored crossover grab that mistakes conviction for substance, Dirty Gold marks Haze as just the latest in a long line of promising mixtape rappers to whiff a major-label debut."[21] Eric Diep of XXL gave the album an M, saying "But Dirty Gold's shortcomings overshadow the shining moments on the album as Haze struggles to find her identity, somewhere between underground rebel and mainstream player."[29]

Mike Madden of Consequence of Sound gave the album a C+, saying "Dirty Gold is plenty inviting, sonically speaking, with patches of rock, EDM, and pop. It's problematic, however, that the album zones in on those genres with about as much specificity as those designators have."[23]

Commercial performance

In the United States, the album debuted at number 15 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart in its first week of release, failing to appear on the Billboard 200.[30] It sold fewer than 1,000 copies in the United States in its first week.[31] In the UK, it debuted at number 196 on the UK Album Charts, selling 857 copies.[32] The album debuted at number 22 on the UK R&B Albums.

Track listing
Standard edition[33]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Sing About Me"
Dravs3:35
2."Echelon (It's My Way)"
  • Haze
  • Dravs
Dravs3:34
3."A Tribe Called Red"
A Tribe Called Red4:37
4."Deep Sea Diver"
  • Haze
  • Dravs
Dravs4:48
5."Black Synagogue"
Dean6:49
6."Angels & Airwaves"
Malay4:21
7."April's Fool"
  • Haze
  • Ho
Malay3:20
8."White Lilies / White Lies"
  • Haze
  • Dravs
  • Tshiswaka Kayembe
  • Petro Prokopiw
Dravs5:18
9."Battle Cry" (featuring Sia)
Kurstin4:52
10."Black Dahlia"
  • Haze
  • Dravs
  • James Wallace
Dravs5:29
11."Planes Fly"
Gosling4:27
12."Dirty Gold"
  • Haze
  • Kurstin
Kurstin4:45
Deluxe edition[34]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
13."Rose-Tinted Suicide"
Summers2:14
14."Vinyl"
  • Haze
  • Ho
Malay3:46
15."Crown"
Rudimental[35]3:07
16."New York"
The 83rd[36]3:27
Notes
  • "Black Synagogue" features uncredited vocals from Wynter Gordon.
  • "Black Dahlia" features an uncredited speech from Natalia Kills.

Personnel

[37]

Charts
Chart (2014) Peak
position
US Heatseekers Albums[38] 15
UK Albums[39] 196
UK R&B Albums[40] 22

Release history
Region Date Format(s) Label Ref.
Europe December 27, 2013
[41]
North America December 30, 2013 Republic Records [42]
United Kingdom January 27, 2014 CD Island Records [43]
gollark: Like I said, radio.
gollark: Sometimes the clouds rain, and if there's not enough redundancy configured or if it hasn't had enough time to replicate, we lose a bit of data.
gollark: Not very sure, no.
gollark: In summer there are sometimes service outages because it runs out of clouds.
gollark: We use cloud hosting. I have a bunch of radio antennas and transceivers pointing to some nearby clouds for data storage.

References
  1. Pelly, Jenn (June 26, 2013). "Listen: Angel Haze Shares Album Outtake "Initiation", Says Her Record Is Finished | News". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  2. Young, Alex (December 18, 2013). "After leaking album, Angel Haze's Dirty Gold gets new release date". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  3. Copsey, Robert (December 20, 2013). "Angel Haze's Dirty Gold review: 'Polished rap-pop with bite'". Digital Spy. Hearst Magazines. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  4. Hampp, Andrew (December 9, 2013). "Angel Haze: Inside The Making of Her Debut Album, 'Dirty Gold'". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  5. "Angel Haze to unveil lead single from debut album next week". NME. IPC Media. August 23, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  6. "Reservation (Mixtape) – Angel Haze", Metacritic.
  7. Downey, John (November 19, 2012). "Angel Haze – Classick Review". Earbuddy. Archived from the original on November 22, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
  8. "Angel Haze now with Republic". Archived from the original on October 30, 2012. Retrieved November 24, 2012.
  9. "Angel Haze Debuts 'No Bueno' In London (Video)". Vibe. Spin Media. May 29, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  10. "iTunes – Music – No Bueno – Single by Angel Haze". iTunes Store (US). Apple. June 2, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  11. Payne, Chris (December 19, 2013). "Angel Haze Defies Label, Leaks 'Dirty Gold' Album". Billboard.com. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  12. "Rap-Up.com || Angel Haze Says 'F**k You' to Label, Leaks Her Album.htm". Rap-Up. Devin Lazerine. December 18, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  13. Gibson, Megan (December 20, 2013). "Angel Haze: Dirty Gold Album Gets Release Date After Leak". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  14. Payne, Chris (December 19, 2013). "Angel Haze Leaks 'Dirty Gold;' Label Responds By Moving Up Release Date". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  15. "BBC News – Angel Haze leaks own album online in dispute with label". BBC News. December 19, 2013. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  16. Battan, Carrie (August 27, 2013). "Listen: Angel Haze: "Echelon" | News". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  17. Minsker, Evan (October 2, 2013). "Video: Angel Haze: "Echelon (It's My Way)" | News". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  18. "iTunes – Music – Echelon (It's My Way) – Single by Angel Haze". iTunes Store (US). Apple. October 15, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  19. "BBC – Radio 1Xtra – Playlist". Archive.is. January 13, 2014. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved July 29, 2014.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  20. "Dirty Gold Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
  21. Heller, Jason (January 8, 2014). "Angel Haze whiffs on her major-label debut · The A.V. Club". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  22. Diver, Mike (January 8, 2014). "Angel Haze – Dirty Gold ¸| Reviews". Clash. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  23. Madden, Mike (January 7, 2014). "Album Review Angel Haze – Dirty Gold". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  24. Petridis, Alexis (January 2, 2014). "Angel Haze: Dirty Gold – review | Music". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  25. Ritchie, Kevin. "Angel Haze". Now. NOW Communications. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  26. Zoladz, Lindsay (January 10, 2014). "Angel Haze: Dirty Gold Review". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  27. Hopper, Jessica (December 31, 2013). "Angel Haze, 'Dirty Gold' Review". Spin. Spin Media. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  28. Savage, Rowan. "Angel Haze – Dirty Gold | Music Review". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  29. Diep, Eric (January 10, 2014). "Angel Haze Struggles To Find Her Identity On 'Dirty Gold'". XXL. Harris Publications. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  30. "Heatseekers Albums : Page 2". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. January 4, 2014. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  31. Estevez, Marjua (2014-01-14). "Angel Haze Isn't Bothered By Her Low Record Sales – XXL". XXL. Harris Publications. Retrieved 2014-07-29.
  32. "Angel Haze's Dirty Gold sold 857 copies first week in the UK, not the Billboard 200 – FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music". Factmag.com. January 7, 2014. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  33. "iTunes – Music – Dirty Gold by Angel Haze". iTunes Store. Apple. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  34. "iTunes – Music – Dirty Gold (Deluxe) by Angel Haze". iTunes Store (GB). Apple. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  35. Diep, Eric (December 20, 2013). "Angel Haze On Her Debut Album: "It's Important To Be A Voice For The Voiceless"". XXL. Harris Publications. p. 3 of 3. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  36. Pelly, Jenn (June 28, 2012). "Angel Haze: "New York" | Tracks". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  37. "Dirty Gold – Angel Haze _ Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  38. "Chart history for Angel Haze: Billboard Heatseekers". Billboard. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
  39. "Angel Haze's Dirty Gold sold 857 copies first week in the UK, not the Billboard 200". FACT. January 7, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
  40. "Official R&B Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. January 5, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
  43. "Dirty Gold: Amazon.co.uk: Music". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
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