That Chick Angel, aka Angel Laketa Moore, is giving fans even more to love after the viral success of her song “One Margarita.”
The comedian, actor and co-host of the podcast Here’s The Thing, with fellow comedian KevOnStage, talked with Blavity about how the success of “One Margarita” taught her even more about how to break out of her limitations.
“It has been insane. All last year, I remember going, ‘What is my life?’ I was like, ‘What is actually happening right now?'” she said. “I will say that it has been like, I don’t want to say like a thrill ride, but it’s been very interesting because it’s taught me a lot about myself and it has shown me my own mental limitations that I put on myself. And it has also made me break out of my shell even more, even though I don’t think anyone would say that I was a person that was in their shell. Most people would think, ‘Hey, she’s just wild and crazy.’ No, I have little boundaries that I’ve put on myself that I realized that are not as helpful as I thought they were.”
She continued, “To be a woman that is proudly 44 years old, but to also be able to say, yeah, Sexyy Red was featured on my single and Saucy Santana and Flo Milli and Fendi DaRapper, for me, that wasn’t making sense at first. Like, ‘How is this happening?’ You know? It took time for me to realize it’s happening because this is what was meant to happen.”
Angel referred to her limitations, saying, “‘You’re the one that has a problem with you being 44 and them being these young up and coming rappers, some very solidified rappers, but they don’t have a problem with it; they said yes. They did not have to be begged. They were like, ‘Yep, I’ll do it.'”
She said women are learning to be themselves authentically, especially as they age.
“Even if you’re a super confident person, you don’t really realize the mental blocks that you have for yourself, especially as women, especially when it comes to age,” she commented. “When really the older you get, you want to be able to get to a place where you realize, actually, you can do whatever the heck you want to. There is really no one that can tell me no about something I want to do. And I’m realizing I’m the only one that can tell no. I was like, ‘Well, what if I just say yes?’ That’s why I am here today.”
Her latest song, “I Just Wanna Shake My,” gives women even more empowerment to be raunchy, fun, and comfortable in their skin.
“We want to do something that has the same type of fun that ‘One Margarita’ does, because that’s what I think people latched onto. It was fun, it was silly, a little raunchy. ‘I Wanna Shake My’ has the same type of silly fun, but for me, it was truly authentic to what I consider fun,” she said. “Sometimes I just want to shake my — I don’t even know what it is that I want to shake. Sometimes I want to shake my titties. Sometimes I want to shake my butt. I just want to shake it. I don’t really want to go to the club. I want to do this at the house. Sometimes I want to be able to dance like a stripper. Sometimes that is just truly the thing that I want to do in the mirror, though. I just want to see if I can. This is what I want to do, and I know I’m not alone.”
Angel added, “The thing is that I feel like society tries to make it seem like life is no longer fun after you get out of your 20s in that it’s just all about adulting. Well, yes, the adulting is a huge part of it. So our fun sometimes looks a little different, but it doesn’t mean that it’s disappeared,” she remarked. “And I wanted to write a song that spoke to that.”
That Chick Angel said she won’t create a song that doesn’t speak to her real-life experiences.
“I’m not gonna talk about effing a bunch of dudes. I’ve been married for 17 years; it’s that one dude. That’s it, period,” she declared. “I’m not going to talk about scamming folk; that’s not what I’m doing. So I was like, ‘What am I doing?’ I’m inviting my homegirls over all the time. We are getting tore up. For my birthday, my little sis Bresha Webb got me this margarita cocktail mixing machine. It’s kind of like the Keurig of cocktails. That thing is so much fun! Just pressing a button, a margarita is coming out; pressing a button, and a cosmopolitan is coming out. That’s what I consider fun, and I know I’m not alone in that. So I wanted to create a song that spoke to that.”
These two songs are just a sample of what fans can expect on That Chick Angel’s upcoming EP, set for a fall release. She stated that her friend and manager said she should make songs about the stories she has to tell.
“I’ve been a content creator for almost 15 years, and I’ve had people who love to critique me harshly and say just some of the most outrageous things to me about either how I present myself or how I behave. So I wrote a song specifically if I were to [respond to them],” she said. “Typically, I do not respond to negative comments. I try my best not to respond to negative comments. Sometimes I do, but typically I don’t. And I was like, ‘You know what? Let me just say all the things that I’ve ever wanted to say to people who have felt the need to harshly criticize and come down on me really hard.”
Another song, she said, is about the relatable feeling of wanting to hide in bed.
“This one is not as much of a party song. It’s more about sometimes just wanting to stay in bed. Like, I think being a Black woman, we’re always seen as ‘Go, go, go, do, do, do,’ and sometimes [we want to say], ‘Not today,’ she noted. “I think there was a day that I was having when that song came that I just wanted to stay in bed. When the sun cracks through the blinds, I just want to be like, ‘Can we pause?’ And I definitely think I am not the only person that feels that way a lot of the time. I don’t feel it all the time, but you’re just like, ‘Can I just pause this past Sunday? And [then another Sunday]?’ That would be perfect. Then I’d be ready for Monday after the double Sunday, but I still need Saturday too — I need the Friday, Saturday, two Sundays and then a Monday.”
Another song is all about being married to the love of her life.
“I have been blessed to have a relationship with a man that I not only love, but that I like and that I am still very attracted to. It’s a little bit more of a mature song, it’s a ‘You can still get it, and I still want to give it’ type of song.”
“Every song that I have written for this EP is a song that will resonate authenticity for what a lot of people in my age range, even some people younger and some people older, but a lot of people in my age range will really like be able to relate to while also shaking their butts to it as well,” Angel added.
Her success as a recording artist is just one aspect of her career she’s been able to dive into, thanks to her group of hardcore fans, her Angel Wings, and her new supporters among KevOnStage’s Stage Krew. She called the love from her fans “beautiful.”
“It’s not something that I take lightly,” That Chick Angel told Blavity. “It keeps me on the straight and narrow. And what I mean by that is it keeps me truly wanting to try to always show up authentically because that is the one thing that I know they can depend on from me. I might not always be able to be the funniest chick in the room. I might not always be able to be the sunshine to brighten up their day, even though that is my goal. My goal is to always bring joy into the room. But what they can count on is that the Angel that they think they know is the Angel that actually exists. That is the Angel that’s always going to show up because I don’t want to ever make a fool out of them.”
She continued, “I appreciate them, and because I feel like I show up so transparent and authentic, they also feel like they can be transparent and authentic with me. So it’s also very helpful for me to know what I’m doing, if it is at all helpful to someone, if it is at all penetrating someone’s life. Regardless, I’m going to do whatever the Lord puts on my heart to do regardless of where the impact is. But it is definitely nice to know when there is an impact.”
She described how she and KevOnStage, aka Kevin Fredericks, have been on tour to entertain and meet their audience, and their support has bowled her over.
“I was so excited and nervous, but I’m so grateful,” Angel shared. “I have some people who helped me run my Patreon, some of my moderators. There was one I had never gotten a chance to meet. She lives in Canada, and me and Kevin did our first tour stop in Canada for our last tour. And she was getting there a bit later than my meet and greets. So I decided I’m going to walk through the audience, and I’m going to find her in the lobby. And I walked through the audience, I found her, and she was like, ‘Oh my God!’ So we got to take a picture together, but for me, I was just so grateful to be able to hug her and to see her because she’s been holding me down since the pandemic. And I feel so blessed to have my Angel Wings. I feel blessed for the Stage Krew members that I also inherited as well. My husband and my family and I don’t take it lightly.”
That Chick Angel declared she would always be authentic and transparent, mentioning, “I get what Beyoncé feels like on a smaller scale because I am a card-carrying BeyHive member, and I appreciate all the hard work that she puts into her stuff and being a mother, being a twin mom, being a Black woman — I relate to her in so many ways that I’m like, ‘I know how hard it is.’ I don’t care how many staff you have.” She continued, “I know how hard it is to balance being married, being a mother and trying to be talented and creative. And the fact that she’s doing it at such a high scale and it is such a level of artistry that most people will never reach. I even bought some Cécred — I don’t even really like it, but I bought it because I wanted to try it because I wanted to support Beyoncé.”
Her fans have been a source of support, but That Chick Angel’s journey also includes the ultimate support system: her faith. If you’ve listened to her comedy and podcast discussions, she has talked about what it was like growing up in the church and how she found her path with God.
“My mother has been an ordained licensed minister since I was 4 or 5. So I don’t really have any childhood memories where the church did not exist heavily in my life. My three sisters are all licensed and ordained ministers. Two of my aunts are licensed and ordained ministers. My grandmother, may she rest in peace, was a licensed and ordained minister. So as you can tell, I have been heavily influenced by the Black church, by Christianity, specifically Christianity in America,” she said.
“As I started to get older, I would say around when I was a teenager, is where I started to see behind the curtain. Like, if we think of the Wizard of Oz and the wizard is this almighty powerful voice, that’s what I would have considered my pastors. They were this almighty powerful voice that I felt like. They were so much a part of my connection to Christ, to God. I noticed behind the curtain that these were just human beings — human beings that would make mistakes just like any other human being, human beings that, while I think their intention was actually honest and pure, still had the same type of missteps in the same type of emotions that anybody else would. That was such a pivotal moment for me in my walk. I want to say I was maybe 16 where I stopped focusing on the leaders that were in front of me. I stopped focusing on my pastors. I stopped focusing on what my mama was doing, what my sisters were doing. And that’s when I got real about what is it that [I] feel. What is it that [I] know? What is it that [I] realize [I] don’t know?”
She said that while she was at summer camp, she would exercise the camp’s rules of being able to leave the grounds for church by attending various churches, mosques and synagogues in the area.
“I wanted to see what’s going on,” she said, mentioning it is important to her to continue to grow in her faith, including being around people who didn’t grow up with the same experiences.
“At first I was in the echo chamber, everybody kind of grew up like me in the same type of church,” she said. “I began to really focus on, ‘God, what are you telling me is right? Am I not supposed to love these people the way I feel like you love me? Because that’s not the kind of messaging that I was getting out of my church.”
Angel added she also worked on finding churches that preach a message that aligns with what she believes about God’s love for everyone, which she wants to impart to her sons.
“At the base of it all for me, it’s about ‘What gifts have You put in me, Lord, that You don’t want me to waste?’ I will try to use them for Your glory as much as possible. And when I am unsure, I hope to dear God that I come asking You to show me where I’m misstepping, that You tell me loud and clear.’ I feel like God has been true to that more than anything. I’m less focused on if other people think what I’m doing is right, other people perceive me as a Christian.”
She said she’s more focused on what the Lord is telling her to do and what the Lord sees in her, not what her pastors or naysayers have told her.
“‘Am I doing what you want me do, Lord? Are you pleased with me?'” she said. “I think that’s really the evolution that I went through. It’s being less focused on what do the leaders think of me and what they’re doing and very much focused on [asking] God [to] please, please, please tell me if I’m going the wrong way because I don’t want to go the wrong way…I want to make sure…I’m using myself as a vessel as much as possible.”
Becoming your own person and listening to your own inner wisdom is part of Black women across the country growing into more actualized versions of themselves, breaking out of the “Strong Black Woman” trap. It’s a trap that is taught by society — including the Black church in general — and the way to break out is to start listening to oneself instead of listening to what society has to say and people-please.
“I think this is why even with how we vote as Black women, we vote in a way that is typically best for the majority of people. If we voted with what was just in our interest at all times, I feel like this country in particular would have fallen apart before now, you know what I’m saying?” she said. “I do think a lot of that [people-pleasing] does come from what we’ve been taught in church — being the strong person, carrying the weight of everyone else and making sure everybody else is good and making sure everybody else perceives us as being helpful, useful and everything. I’m not saying there’s all bad in that, but this is how we get worn out. This is how we have all these unrealized and unfulfilled dreams inside of us because we still worry about everybody else.”
That Chick Angel’s journey to expand her view of herself is a huge part of her career, especially after feeling invigorated as part of Robin Thede’s A Black Lady Sketch Show. Angel said her time on the show challenged her in ways she hadn’t yet been challenged in other roles.
“What Robin Thede created was one of a kind. It was iconic. It was historical. It’s revolutionary,” she said. “I am so glad that I get to be a part of what that legacy will always be.”
“There were more Black female department heads on that show than any other show in history. I don’t think there’s any show that has all Black female writers in the writing room,” she continued. “It was just super duper smart, very intellectual, and it was definitely a time where I felt like I got to use all of my training. I am a very, very trained comedic actress, actress period. I have studied so many forms of comedy. I’ve done clown work, mask work, physical comedy, stand-up, improv sketch, Commedia dell’arte; I’ve done Shakespearean comedy. The list of styles of comedy that I’ve actually studied — not just did, but also studied — goes on and on and on and on. So you have a show that is allowing me to take all that training, plus the fact that I’m a trained dancer and a trained singer. Using all of that was like being a kid in a candy store. I know those opportunities are few and far between, so I’m grateful for that. One of the reasons why I love creating content outside of doing television is that’s one of the only other times I get to use whatever I want to use of my skill set.”
“I am sad that it is gone,” she said of Thede’s show. “But Robin and her team…did something that will never be forgotten. It’s just like how In Living Color was so iconic as well. This was a whole other level, a whole other layer to it.”
For fans inspired by her trajectory, Angel said one of the best things to do is to start creating your outlet without waiting for Hollywood to open up to you.
“Not allowing this industry to dictate what your value is” is important, she said, adding, “When I started content creating, it was because I was pregnant with my first son, and I knew that working as a pregnant actress at that time was going to be very, very difficult. So I started creating content as, on the advice of my little sis Bresha, I started creating content then as a creative outlet. After I had him is when I started doing stand-up because I wanted another creative outlet, and I wanted to find a way to take all these new experiences I was having as a new mom and be able to tell the story behind it.”
“So for a young Black woman or a older Black woman who’s deciding that acting is what she wants to do, I would say don’t fully let this industry dictate if and when you are creating. Always have other ways to be able to get your stories out, to get your creativity out, because it’s only going to help and enhance you booking the work that you want on television. I can tell you right now…I used to keep Angel Laketa Moore, the professional television and film actress and commercial actress, and That Chick Angel separate — you would never see them in the same space. The more I’ve leaned into That Chick Angel is that in all these rooms, the easier it’s been for me to book work, the easier it’s been for me to do things that I think are amazing. Like Angel Laqueta Moore the actress would have never, ever had a music video with Cindy Crawford in it. That just would not have happened.”
“Because I allowed those two worlds to blend together, That Chick Angel and me being an actress, I was able to have an experience that most people would never dare dream of having, and it’s prepared me to go into these rooms, very polished, very self-aware and understanding how to plainly articulate what my expectations are, what I would like, and how I can better partner with these people that are deciding, ‘We want to work with Angel.’ That is what I would say forany young, old, middle-aged Black woman. Make sure you’re creating your own because that’s the easier calling card than to just wait for somebody to tell you yes. Trust and believe, they’ll be asking for you the more you create.
What is next for That Chick Angel? She says a one-woman show is in her future.
“Again, going back to talking about A Black Lady Sketch Show, there was a time where I was able to harness all the fun things that I’ve been able to learn to do and put it together. But now I want to do it on my own and be able to take the songs that I’ve written, be able to take the ideas that are in my head and put them together for a show that reallyencompasses the insanity that is That Chick Angel and tour,” she said. “So that is a big goal of mine, to really take my original songs and weave a story into them.
She added that she wants to make her show less traditional theater and more like how brunch feels to the “grown and sexy” audience she’s cultivated.
“You know, just going to brunch with your girls, that’s what I want my one-woman show to feel like,” she said. “I want it to feel like, ‘Girl, we’re about to go see Angel do her one-woman show. They’re having brunch, baby, and we’re going to have a good kiki of a time.’ That is what I want it to feel like. I want people to leave there feeling like, ‘Oh, we had a time! We had a time, and it’s not even last night — it’s in the good smack middle of the day, early evening so we get out in time to be able to go home and relax!'”
