Molly Santana is a star in the making in the underground rap scene, and one with a truly unique aesthetic. Her visuals are embedded with a gothic energy – as if what you just experienced was a fever dream: too good, and haunting, to be true.

Molly already knows the impact she wants on the world—and exactly what she stands for. She’s mastered the art of making every word count, in her music and message. “I want to be the one to advocate for people who look like me and who feel like me.” she says. “Those who feel like sometimes nobody understands the weight of just being yourself, how that feels like, there are so many people who came before us, so many women who came before us, who fought for us – for us to just have freedom, to just make decisions for ourselves.”

The rapper is gearing up for her first tour and has just released a new album. She fuses raw underground rap with experimental production and her distinctive visual style to match. That’s more than most 20-year-olds can say about themselves.

V chatted with Molly over Zoom and got a sneak peak of what’s going through the singer’s mind during the release of her new album Her Week of Wonders and before going on her own tour for the first time.

V Magazine: Can you tell me about the moment or experience that first drew you to music? When did you realize it was more than just a hobby—that it was your true passion and something you wanted to pursue seriously?

Molly Santana: My parents always played music around me. When I was growing up, my mom was a journalist for music so she used to interview artists before she had me. Music has always been in my family, nobody ever did music, but we all appreciate music a lot. I think I realized more when I was around 15 or 16 years old, I wanted to do music because I was so obsessed with so many different mainstream and underground artists. So I realized, it’s finally time for me to take a step towards that.

V: Growing up with your parents being in music, who did you listen to?

MS:  A lot of 90s R&, SWV, Destiny’s Child, Mary J Blige, and old California, N.W.A and Snoop Dogg, all those, old legends for real.

V: Speaking of California, you grew up between LA and Japan. How did that shape you as an artist, and what was it like going to fashion school in Japan?

MS: I think it shaped me in so many ways, because California, especially southern California, I know Northern California is diverse too, but Southern California is super diverse. So I grew up around all different types of people and people from all over the world. I was always used to seeing so many foreign people. Going to Japan influenced me and my love for fashion as well, and going to school for fashion out there was so fun, but it was super hard and taxing physically. So I left early out of the school year, but I enjoyed my time out there because it was such a beautiful experience being able to be and live out there and experience the culture as a real resident. But I learned that I love being an American, for sure.

V: I’ve noticed you incorporate black grills to pay homage to Japanese tradition.  Did your time as a fashion student in Japan influence that choice, or was there another inspiration behind it?

MS: I had seen this girl, her name is Sukii Baby (@sukiibaby) and she’s black and Japanese, just like me. I had seen her tweeting about it a while ago, she was tweeting about how Japanese princesses used to wear their teeth black and paint their teeth black. So I looked into it, and I remember asking my grandma and my mom what they knew about it because it was all new to me. I was living in Japan at the time, so I went and got grills from this super famous guy. His name is Tetsuya Akiyama (grillzjewelz_is_right). He makes all of ASAP Rocky’s grills and super crazy artwork. He specializes in doing all the different colored stuff so I thought it would be perfect to get it from him because he’s Japanese and he does such crazy work.

V: Let’s talk about your new album. What inspired you to create Her Week of Wonders, and can you share a bit about the creative journey behind it?

MS: So this album is inspired by a movie. It’s a Czech movie called Valerie and her Week of Wonders from the 70s. It’s a horror art film, but it’s super beautiful. It highlights all the horrors and the terrors of growing up in womanhood and what it’s like to be an innocent girl and one day, you open your eyes, and you’re a woman – and the whole world sees you in such a different light and approaches you in such a different light. It’s about how scary it can be, but it’s so beautiful being a woman, it’s such a beautiful experience. I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but I relate to that movie a lot because it highlights a lot of sensitive topics about how it feels to be a woman and how quick it is, especially in the music industry, women, are pushed to grow so fast, and we are pushed to be perfect and we are always being looked at under like a magnifying glass.  I resonate with that. I wanted to make this album very personal to me, and how I feel right now in my career, the stage that I’m at, and I think it just all paints the picture very well, especially with, my lyrics and everything, all the topics blend so well. And I love how that movie looks. My last album was based on movies so I wanted to keep that theme continuing.

V: In this album, you also go into themes of surrealism and self-discovery, is that also through the same lenses? What inspired you to also explore these concepts in your music?

MS: This movie opened my eyes, because when I was recording the album, at first I had no idea what I was making the music about. It was about what I was going through at that certain moment and then the album just started to write itself. Then once I watched the movie a few times over, I watched this woman explaining the movie and how she interpreted it, because since it’s an art film it can be interpreted in so many different ways. But the way that this woman explained it was just so great, it finally clicked with me. I feel like everybody should watch this movie, it does wonders for that genre of film, in my opinion, because it just has such a great depth to the meaning of it. With my album, I just wanted to highlight, how it feels to be in my situation, especially as I wouldn’t call myself a pioneer, but I do feel almost a bit alone in the class that I’m in, I would say, musically, and sometimes it’s hard to grow up and also be something or somebody that people think is kind of new or people don’t know how, don’t understand you yet. Especially as a woman, we have so many things to worry about, the way that we look, the way that we walk, the way that we talk, how it’s going to be perceived, or if we’re even going to be perceived at all, or listened to. It’s just such a big topic and issue to me that I think should be brought up more, especially, since I’m a feminist all the way 1000% and I want to be the one to advocate for people who look like me and who feel like me. Those who feel like sometimes nobody understands the weight of just being yourself, how that feels like, there are so many people who came before us, so many women who came before us, who fought for us – for us to just have freedom, to just make decisions for ourselves. I still want to push for those people who stood up for us back then and continue to push the narrative of women being strong and women being in their full power.

V: Did writing this album make you feel less alone? Was it your way of making a change?

MS: About this, yes, for sure. This album made me understand what my purpose is as an artist. The album before, I am still finding myself, and I’m still finding myself every single day, but with this album, I think it’s a very clear step towards who I truly am, like at my core I am as an artist.

V: How did you get the idea of starting to use films as your inspiration? You mentioned your last album was also influenced by a movie—how did that approach begin for you?

MS: Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you what made me do that, because I’m not a big film person. I don’t watch movies that much, but when a movie sticks with me and resonates with me, I get super obsessed with it. I think it also is a way for me to put myself into a character and not have to feel as vulnerable as myself. It’s almost as if I get to be playing dress-up, and that’s my favorite thing.

V: Coming off of that, you’ve been dropping a new trailer every week, which is all written, styled, and directed by you. Is that your way of playing dress up, and showing your view and your ideas?

MS: Yes, for sure, I loved being able to make that short film, because it gives a lot of people more information on what’s going on inside my head. I genuinely forget that people can’t see what’s going on inside my head or understand because music is one thing, it’s not the whole thing, you can’t smell it or see it, taste it, or feel it all the time. Not the same way that you can with a movie, because you can control so many different elements in film. Who you cast, how you style it, and everything about it, even just the coloring. It was so fun to have more mediums to play with. I just love to take control over everything, and steer my art, because it just brings me joy, telling my stories because sometimes it’s hard for me to get words out in music through lyric form. It felt so exhilarating to be able to express my creativity in that way. 

V: Your aesthetic is so precise and beautiful—can you share a bit about your creative process? How did you develop such a distinctive visual style?

MS: Thank you so much. It was inspired by the movie. My friend Lily Lauria (@lilylauriia), shot the album cover for my last album, and then she also shot the album cover for this one that I’m about to release today. She is also from Southern California, just like me, a small town and her taste in everything is so beautiful to me. She inspired me this time around with this album, with all the visuals and everything. This one was almost a love letter to her. We sampled some of her stuff for the album, and it was just great to have her creative hand on everything because she’s tasteful, and so unique.

V:You also collaborated with Che and Hardrock on the album. What was it like working with them?

MS: It was fun, I didn’t expect to have features on this album at first, but I’m really glad it happened the way it happened because those two artists I vibe with in real life too. They’re great friends and just great people and I hope to see enormous success for them as well. So it’s just great to have them be a part of my story. 

V: Do you have any upcoming projects, apart from your album, that you’re excited about, or something you want to do? What’s that looking like?

MS: I am so excited for the tour. I have not gone on my own, like a headline tour yet since I started music. So I’m just super excited for and looking forward to that, I can’t even think about anything else, right?

Molly’s album, Her Week of Wonders, was released on May 30th and is now available to stream.