MOLIY talks “Shake It To The Max (Fly),” Honey Doom, and new music

If the song of the summer still exists in 2025, MOLIY’s “Shake It To The Max (Fly)” is an obvious contender. The Ghanaian-American’s track is a hypnotic spiral of Afropop-meets-dancehall that’s catapulted MOLIY (pronounced like “Molly”) to the top of Afrobeats charts in the US and UK thanks to a TikTok dance challenge and a viral remix featuring Skillibeng and Shenseea. Fast forward to summer 2025 and it felt like you couldn’t escape MOLIY, whether walking around Crown Heights, flipping through Top 40 radio stations, or just scrolling through social media.

Speaking to me on the phone ahead of the VMAs, the Ghanaian-American singer is bubbly and beaming as she recalls her career beginnings. “I had this delusion: ‘If I want, I could totally be like a superstar with no training, [and] a casual amount of songwriting skills.’” It wasn’t a delusion then, and it certainly isn’t one now.

MOLIY grew up in Accra, Ghana, the youngest of three siblings (Her older sister Mellissa also makes music). The trio didn’t know how to play music, but they would use the family keyboard to do “fake Taylor Swift covers. “I would just play a beat off my computer and sing to my phone,” she says of her first musical creations. “I had no clue at that time, or access to studios. It was moreso just playing around with it.” She eventually met her go-to producer Mike Millz, and in 2018 released her first song “Jonny” on SoundCloud.

When I ask about the music she listened to growing up, MOLIY says her mom was mostly playing, “old school music […] Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Daddy Lumba, Dolly Parton.” Some of that songwriting influence comes through more clearly on deep cuts that address more serious romantic dynamics, though right now MOLIY tells me she’s focused on music that “makes [me] have a good time.” She recently signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell UK and tells me she’s been working on a bigger body of work.

“Now that I’m at a place where I do have my own sound figured out, it’ll be great to get insights from people who’ve been in the game,” she says of the deal and her recent recording sessions with new producers. “Learn from their experiences and see how they might be able to tailor the sound that I am making.”

The FADER caught up with MOLIY on a video call in early September to talk about high school talent shows, “SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY” with Amaarae and Kali Uchis, developing the sound of her 2022 EP Honey Doom, and the success of “Shake It To the Max.”

The FADER: Who are some artists who have inspired you?

Definitely Rihanna. My favorite song would be “Pour It Up,” because I just remember this moment where I tried to perform it [at a school talent show] and it was just awful because I had stage fright. The way the song is set up, she starts singing as soon as the beat drops. I tried to catch it like three times. I was so embarrassed and I just cried and went off stage. I’m never gonna forget that moment, even though it just makes me happy to speak about it now, cause I see how far I’ve come [with] being afraid to show myself to people.

You’ve been making music for several years and you’ve gone through a few different evolutions in terms of your sound or approach. What has stayed the same and what do you feel like has shifted?

Most of my early music was very much, “I heard this beat, so I wanna do a beat that’s very similar to this,” almost a recreation, cause I was building my own sound. Now I’m way more decisive on what genre I want to make or how I want it to feel. I have way more vision now, and my own vision for myself versus just creating without that much intention.

I wanted to talk about your 2022 project Honey Doom and where your head was at with the themes and sound of that record.

I feel like my headspace was very much trying to release, cause music can be very therapeutic. So a lot of it was me presenting those different experiences. Like this one record, “Freak,” has a lot of undertones of mental [and] physical abuse, and wanting to leave this toxic space. It was just very interesting to put those real life, what could be a traumatic experience into music and then it becomes a freaking release. And then hopefully, people who can relate hear it and they can feel that release as well.

Another song, “Human,” with my sister Mellissa, that one also feels super powerful, super inspiring; just trying to be motivated, when things are going against you. Then I have other songs that are more similar to what I do now, so it was a process really. “Body On Fire,” “Hard” with Moonchild Sanelly, that’s more of the baddie music. That confident, go-get-it, sexy gal, she was still in there.

Tell me a little bit about your collaborations from 2024, cause you took a bit of a break from dropping your own music and you were really focused on doing features for other people.

I was based in Orlando at the time and just trying to figure stuff out. I had put out that EP and put so much intention into it and I was just looking at the progress, what it was doing for me, and I really felt like when I do something next, I want it to have way more impact. My manager was like, “We can really make a plan, we can find the right distributor, but you gotta stay active.”

She actually wanted me to do way more features than I did. But for me, the selection process is definitely like, I need to like your music. I need to feel like this is something I can connect with or I can flow with, and luckily I managed to connect with a lot of artists that I think are really cool. I love the features cause it’s a way for me to show people how versatile I can be.

One feature I wanted ask about was on Amaarae’s 2020 song “SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY.” I was curious about your experience going viral, and what you apple from that experience to your own career.

That was actually the first time I experienced a viral moment, but you being a feature on a hit song is different than you releasing a hit song. At the time, I don’t think I knew how to handle a viral moment. With what I know now, I would have not stopped hounding people on my social media like, “I’m on this song, I’m on this song, I’m on this song.” I would have owned it a little bit more, because people sometimes don’t look at all the names on a song. I would have done more to show myself to people and with things now, the way I handled “Shake It To The Max,” I feel like it was impossible to ignore because it was my release and I was putting myself out there consistently.

I know you’re working on new music. What can you tell our readers about that project?

This music, I’m making it for you guys, but I’m also really making it for me. The more I create and the more I perform, I’m seeing the kind of music I enjoy performing: what really makes MOLIY MOLIY. I really want this music to be played in spaces where people have a good time. At a party, at a rave, at a festival, at a concert. I want it all to sound like this music deserves to be in this space, because I know exactly where I want to perform it.