Moliy is a whole vibe, and she’s here to spread her Afro-fusion sound from Ghana to the rest of the universe. Hailing from Ghana but now calling Florida home, the singer-songwriter has one goal: to inspire the masses all around the world.

Listing Eminem and Lil Wayne as her influences, her love for music bleeds through her own sound, going from karaoke performances with friends and family to shutting down her own headlining show in New York.

While the COVID-19 pandemic may have slowed things down for most people, Moliy took advantage and recorded her debut EP, “Wondergirl.” The 6-track project pays homage to her distinct sound, which pulls influence from elements of jazz, soul, hip-hop, dancehall, and R&B — reaching areas from the shores of Ghana, to Nigeria, to Kenya, and even the United States.

Earlier this year, Moliy made her mark, exploding onto the scene as a standout feature on Amaarae’s “SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY” which has over 5.2 million views on Youtube and counting. Most recently, she followed it up with yet another banger, “Ghana Bop,” created to have you moving on the dance floor.

AllHipHop: Talk about your Afro-fusion sound and what it means to you.

It’s a blend of Afro-pop, R&B, soul, dancehall, even Hip Hop. I like a lot of sounds, so to me, it’s merging all of those inspirations. Right now, people have a general tag for what they call “Afro-fusion,” but I’m hoping along the line, we will have different sections of what it means to be creating Afro-music. In the Western sense, there’s R&B and all of that. Everything has its category. Somehow with us, it’s all jumbled up into one group. I’m hoping it expands.

AllHipHop: I know you like Eminem and Lil Wayne…

Moliy: I love Kendrick, Lil Wayne, Eminem. People who are good with really dope melodies and add a sense of story-writing when they create music.

AllHipHop: You’re originally from Ghana, when did you come to America?

Moliy: It was recent, a couple months now. I’m from Ghana, West Africa, but I’m also American.

AllHipHop: What was it like growing up in Ghana?

Moliy: It was cool, I really liked it. Growing up in my childhood home, my mom had a restaurant/bar right next to the house. We’d hear lots of Highlife music, like Daddy Lumba. You might also hear a lot of Celine Dion, Michael Jackson. There were a lot of influences going on, and I got different experiences.

I got to see what it was like to be privileged, and what it was like to not. I had a mix of local friends and f international friends. I could also see the difference it is to be light-skinned. That kind of privilege, it’s really out there. If you go there right now, everyone’s going to look at you. They’re going to assume you’re rich, just based on the color of your skin. It’s pretty interesting, but I thoroughly enjoyed growing up in Ghana.

AllHipHop: When did you realize you could do music for a living?

Moliy: 4 years ago. I had just gone back to Ghana, and I wasn’t really working. I wasn’t in school. I had friends who were in the music scene, up and coming producers and artists, so I was in the studio quite a lot. But at the time, I was incredibly shy. I didn’t really think I could do it. As I started feeling like I could contribute, I’d chip in and say things like “Oh, you can write it this way,” or “you could sing it this way.” They really appreciated my comments and my opinions. I’m like, “Okay, let me create my own song.” From the first time I decided to create a song, it was like, “Nah, I can do this.”

AllHipHop: Talk about collaborating with Amaarae on “SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY.” That’s such a dope song.

Moliy: At that point, I was still working on my project. I had DM’ed her, I told her that I wanted to work with her, because I could see what she was doing. I could see that she was creating a sound that was different from the authentic Afro-beats. It was a fusion and it was pretty interesting. I feel like our sounds match, so I thought we should work together. After my project came out, Wondergirl, she heard it and said, “Yo, this is dope! Let’s do it. Let’s get in the studio.” She sent me the instrumental, I wrote on it. We linked up in the studio and recorded it. It was pretty dope. It happened so quick and so easy, it was a dope experience.

AllHipHop: What was like the vibe of that studio session?

Moliy: It was early in the morning. [laughs] I went early and we stayed until 2pm, maybe 3pm. Everyone was on a high of “Wow, we’re creating magic right now.”

AllHipHop: How does it feel to see those numbers though?

Moliy: It makes me feel like, a lot more is possible. It opens up my mind to see what I can do – the future looks really bright when I see that.

AllHipHop: “Ghana Bop” is out now. Bring us back to when you made this record.

Moliy: I wrote “Ghana Bop” in the US, right before I went to back Ghana. I started recording and wanted to create a project. How really the song came about is, I saw a bunch of artists creating “bop bop.” Stormzy did it, Ms Banks did it, so I knew it was a thing. But I didn’t see anyone from Ghana do something like that yet. I figured if I’m doing it, I might as well put the stamp on it and call it “Ghana Bop.”

Really, the inspiration behind it was me manifesting my own confidence and speaking it into existence. I want to feel this way about myself. You would think I was feeling that way when I wrote that song. I really wasn’t, but I wanted to. [laughs] Now, I do feel that way. It’s really about confidence, about women feeling confident about themselves. No, I don’t need anybody. I got this. I’m beautiful. That’s what I want women to sing when they listen to music, those things that make you feel positive about yourself.

AllHipHop: What does female empowerment mean to you?

Moliy: It’s incredibly important. Over the past year or two, I’ve embodied that. I was coming out of a very toxic relationship, so I had to rewire and reprogram the way I think, and the way I feel about myself. In doing that, I could see a whole wave of other women who are actually doing the same thing. It’s a whole movement going on, which is dope.

AllHipHop: Where was the video shot? I love it, it’s such a vibe.

Moliy: I was in Ghana, then I heard Briana was in town. She owns the Matte Brand Company. She met me, she’s telling me “Look I listened to your project, it was really dope. You’re so dope!” That was it, we connected. Somehow she left Ghana, then she hit me up a couple of months later. She’s like, “Yo, I want to shoot a video for this. I really like this song.” She literally flew all the way to Ghana, shot this video, styled it, creative-directed it. My sister helped her as well, she was the DP. It was really a close-knit project, not a lot of people were involved. Most of the girls who came through, came through because they wanted to be there. It speaks to the whole woman empowerment thing, because everyone was really there to support and make it come to life.

AllHipHop: What was the best memory from that day?

Moliy: Mmm, girl. [laughs] If you only knew how many things went wrong. Let me tell you… on the last day of shooting right? This was a very stressful day already, because we had so many things to make happen that we were failing, but we were still going with the flow. The tip of the iceberg was me coming off one set, and having bird poop land on my freaking eyelash. [laughs] I’m like “What is happening right now?!” I almost cried, but I held it back. I Googled it, why did this happen? I did a quick Google search, and that’s the rarest thing for a person. Okay, it must mean good luck. It’s going to be a good video. That’s the most memorable thing, I’ll never forget that.

AllHipHop: What’s one thing you want to get from Wondergirl?

Moliy: From the sound, I want them to get how versatile I am. How open I am to creating different kinds of music. From the lyrics and the storytelling, I want them to get that you can be going through things, but you don’t have to let it drain you. You don’t have to soak it in like a sponge. You can let it flow through you and still be what you want to be, think what you want to,and try to attract what you want to attract. Because like there’s sad songs in there, but it’s sad songs that make you feel like “no, this is not what I want. I want better for myself.” There’s love songs that make you feel like “Yeah I have all this love to give, but you should know you need to deserve it to get it.”

AllHipHop: What can we expect from Honey Doom, coming out next year?

Moliy: Honey Doom is my next project. I want it to be a leveled up version of what people have already heard. I want them to hear different sounds that they haven’t heard me try yet. I want to let them know, you can’t put Moliy in a box. Obviously it’s going to carry the same empowering message to them: for females, for women. That’s what I always want to be putting out there. I also wanted to show my growth as a writer and as a vocalist.

AllHipHop: Why the title Honey Doom?

So to me, it’s bittersweet, which was the realization I had growing up. Because in my heart, I’m still a kid. But I need to be an adult. What I learned from all this is things don’t always go your way. Bad things happen, but good things happen too. It’s a balance, but it’s also staying true to yourself. It’s like “honeymoon,” but Honey Doom is the complete opposite.

AllHipHop: How was it performing in New York?

Moliy: Oh my God, it was amazing! I used to have stage fright, not long ago. It’s something that I’ve been working on. Doing that show made me realize it’s time to step into myself as an artist. Really enjoy it and feel out the crowd, make sure they’re having a good time. I can get it out of my head and really have a blast with it. It was a great performance, everybody there had an amazing time as well. I can’t wait to do more.

AllHipHop: How do you get over your stage fright?

Moliy: A lot of affirmations.

AllHipHop: 3 things you need in studio at all times?

Moliy: I need a drink to loosen up. [laughs] I need not so many people in the room so I could feel it out. I need the lighting down low, all the way down low.

AllHipHop: Talk about working with M.anifest and Vic Mensa. How was that?

Moliy: It was M.anifest’s track. Vic was a featured artist, I was the featured artist. It was me and Manifest from the get. We were in the studio together. We created the song together, then Vic was added onto it at the end. When he came to Ghana and we shot the video, it felt really great that two amazing artists like that felt like they could do a track with me, and to have it do good. Even though I’m still fairly new to the industry. I like the fact that it was a rap record. I like the fact that it was a record about no fear, because I have to have no fear if I’m really about to do all of this. Most of the features I’ve been doing are really real, none of it is just music. It’s real and it relates to me.

AllHipHop: Any goals for yourself?

Moliy: I have a lot of goals, too many. Top three right now would be to be financially independent, I want to be paid! Two, to work with more amazing artists that I truly admire. I want to do Burna. I want to do Rihanna. I want to do Baby Keem. There’s so many artists that I can’t wait to meet and collaborate with. Third, I want to improve myself as best as possible, as an artist more and more.

AllHipHop: Anything else you want to let the people know?

Moliy: Thank you to everyone who’s tuning in. You guys should really expect me to do a lot, a lot, a lot more. I’m not stopping. I’m planting ways, I’m ready to do this. I want you guys to keep doing what you’re doing, that’s your passion that you believe in. It’s a new year: write your intentions, focus on it and get it done. I’m rooting for you!