For her second project, Ghanaian American singer-songwriter Molly Ama Montgomery crafts a coming-of-age story that details her evolution both personally and sonically. As a follow-up to 2020’s Wondergirl—which first introduced her airy, otherworldly vocals on tracks like “Loud” and “Ghana Bop”—Honey Doom finds Moliy more vulnerable yet more confident. “Honey Doom is like the world through my [eyes] because I’m a very positive person,” she tells Apple Music. “I always like to make sure situations don’t overtake me. It’s a big thing to be creating all this music and also growing spiritually and understanding life differently. For Wondergirl, [the person I was] was more naive; she was more childlike. Honey Doom is about becoming a woman, owning my space and being confident about my feelings because my feelings are valid.” That newfound boldness even translates to her vocal delivery—an energetic, high-pitched take on Afropop. “I sound like a baby girl that’s just yelling, ‘Give me what I want,’” she explains. “I feel like I sing sometimes, and people are like, ‘Yeah, I love your voice, but just make it soft. Make it calm.’ I’m just like, ‘No, I’m screaming at you because this is the emotion behind it.’ You can picture that this is just a very fun and fearless and just crazy little girl. That’s what I want it to be.” Here, Moliy takes us through Honey Doom, track by track. “Together” [Moliy & Juls] “Fairy tales, back in the day, used to be very straightforward. Prince Charming meets the girl, and he’s wooing her. Now I don’t know—I just feel like the dynamic in relationships has kind of changed. The woman is always really hustling to get the best out of the man. And I don’t think it should be that way. So, I’m laying the demands out here. I’m telling you what I want. I’m telling you I want something real. I want something solid. I want loyalty. And if we’re really together, then it’s till death do we part. That’s what I want. I saw that’s the kind of relationship my mom had with my dad, so I want that for myself.” “Prisoner” (feat. P.Priime) “‘Prisoner’ would be leaning towards more Moliy when she’s feeling insecure, or when she’s in a situation where she doesn’t trust her partner. I find myself being really possessive, really clingy, almost all the time thinking of different scenarios that you could be doing to try and sabotage this relationship. It’s really hard when you’re with someone and the trust is broken. I feel like it really brings out my crazy side, and that’s what ‘Prisoner’ is.” “Body on Fire” “This particularly stands out to me in the lyrics. In the song, I’m like, ‘Buss a whine when you leave me on read.’ So, that means I’ve texted you. I’m telling you I want to see you, but you’ve left me on ‘read’. But I’m still in a fantastic mood because I know I’m coming over anyway. I’m still going to see you. So, it doesn’t really matter. It’s almost a little toxic, where I know what I want, and I know I can get it from you—so I’m going to do that.” “Love Doc” “I dropped this one on Valentine’s Day [2022] because I was single and dancing, and I knew there were other single ladies out there definitely feeling some of my pain. I feel like even though it’s on Honey Doom, it still connects me to Wondergirl because it’s still tying down some of the feelings from that relationship. That was the last venting process that I had.” “Freak” “We are really having fun to this, but there’s a really deep message behind this song. It’s about really toxic relationships—so toxic that it gets to the point of domestic abuse. And this is a topic that I feel like really needs to be heard because I don’t know what’s happening. Obviously, domestic violence towards women is not something new. But for some reason, over the past couple of years, I feel like I’ve witnessed it happen to people really close to me. In some cultures, [if] you see your neighbour going to harm his partner, it’s taboo to speak up or even confront them or do anything about it. People just turn a blind eye. You can see it literally in public. I don’t think people react enough. Even me: I wonder what I would do, but I want to do more. I want everyone to do more.” “Banana” “This is one of my faves. It reminds me of music that I really used to love back in the day, like music from Akon, Sean Paul. I don’t know, it just brings back those kinds of memories and sounds. The message behind it is basically, ‘I’m a boss, B, and I know where I’m going in life. I know what I’m going to achieve. I know what I’m trying to create for myself, which is an empire.’ So, whoever comes into my life, they need to be on that level. They need to have those goals, or I don’t see this working.” “Hard” [Moliy & Moonchild Sanelly] “I wanted something fun. I wanted something girls can twerk to and just go crazy to. And the beat gives me like boom-bap, New York vibes. I have a whole fan base in New York that I really love, and I’m hoping to collab with more New York artists, so I just thought this would be another great sound dynamic to add to the project. Moonchild Sanelly’s energy was amazing from the get. I’ve heard way too many records of rappers, or male artists in general, just disrespecting women, just telling them what to do. ‘Go down on me, twerk it up on me, come to my room. Do that, do this.’ I’m like, ‘OK, here’s a scenario where we are telling you what to do, and you’re going to do it. You’re going to do it, or you’re going to step. One way or the other.’” “Human" (feat. Mellissa & DJ Radix) “This one is very special to me. I think it’s the one with the most emotion. I feel like so much sadness went into that song, just based on so many things I was trying to overcome. And who best to do it with than my sister Mellissa, who went through those things with me, who helped me come out of it and who was there as a rock. This song is really about me as a human being trying to empower myself through all the negative things I’m going through and also speaking into existence the positive things that I expect to happen for me. Shout-out to Mellissa, my best friend—she absolutely killed the song.”