Kelly Moonstone Is Waxing (And Loving It)

Going Up is a profile series featuring artists we love who are on the verge of breaking through.

Walking through Williamsburg on a late summer afternoon, I see a two-finger peace sign pop up from the corner of Kent and Metropolitan Ave and think “That must be Kelly Moonstone.” A week and a half removed from the release of her debut album New Moon, she’s in rollout mode and a bit exhausted, but bubbly and eager to kick it at an old haunt. We’re at 2nd Street, a vintage clothing store with locations all around the city, but the Williamsburg storefront we pull up to is particularly expansive and chic. Racks of clothing, shoes, bags, and accessories line the aisles and brick walls, from dingy graphic tees and starter jackets to designer brands like Gucci and Commes De Garcon. We laugh at a handful of cringe-inducing Naruto and Chrome Hearts t-shirts, and spend time breaking down the practical applications—and the drip—of more than one leather bag. “This one just needs a little love,” Kelly says, examining the stains on a light brown leather backpack with many pockets, “But nah, not today.”   

Kelly doesn’t thrift often, but 2nd Street is one of her favorite stores and a place she’s picked up more than a few grails, including some Bape tees—she’s been a Bathing Ape fan for years and grabs whatever she can to soothe the inner child who couldn’t afford them before—and a pair of Salehe Bembury Crocs. Even though she left empty-handed today, perusing through threads seemed to energize her, the thrill of stumbling on gold being enough to urge her back in to try again.

As an artist, she’s already been through this cycle before. Her career began in the early 2010s under the name The Afr0dite, releasing covers of Jill Scott, SZA, and Snoh Aalegra songs before putting her own creations out into the world. For a time, she was even being scouted by A&Rs at indie labels like Cinematic Music Group, home of then up-and-comers Joey Bada$$ and Mick Jenkins. After releasing one full-length album, the soulful rap&b-laced Afr0diaries, in 2018, and guesting on Pink Siifu’s breakout album Ensley, she retired The Afr0dite in 2021 before settling on a new name: a combination of her real first name and the birthstone for the month of June, when she was born. As Kelly Moonstone, she leaned even further into the Who Is Jill Scott by way of new-school hip-hop nature of her music, releasing a debut mixtape, the lovesick I Digress…, in 2023, and guesting on rapper-producer Navy Blue’s “Window to the Soul” before joining him on tour later that year. Digress… made quite the splash within the alt-rap scene, a project as soulful, passionate, and funny as your favorite romcom protag, unlucky in love but always trying. 

“That project dropped, and I immediately went on tour, like, two days after that,” Kelly remembers over Shake Shack burgers later in the day. She had also suffered a pulmonary embolism shortly before Digress... came out, so jetsetting to Europe for the first time was scary and challenging for multiple reasons. “I was on the right meds, but I was very paranoid. Like ‘Damn, I’m really doing this shit.’” Fans in Europe and across America would come up to her and tell her they’d been tapped in since the Afr0dite days, and that devotion put a battery in Kelly’s back. The energy would have to be stored, though, since after the tour ended, life kept her busy: she started a new relationship, and moved out on her own for the first time, from New York to New Jersey. She made music here and there, but it wasn’t her main focus. As she moved back to New York and that relationship ended, another began but quickly fizzled, and Kelly felt the “creative juices” flowing back into her, which kickstarted the project that would eventually become New Moon.

New Moon expands on those romantic odysseys with sharper vision. “It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s also a little scary,” she says. “I feel like my baby’s outside. It’s like sending a kid off to preschool. This music is so personal, and I guess people knowing you in that way, while not really knowing you at all, is a new feeling for me.” Combining neo-soul, R&B, and sample-based hip-hop, Moonstone weaves a series of love affairs and relationships into a concept album depicting a season of anime she and her friends discover on a streaming service during a girl’s night. Kelly’s a huge fan of the form: her favorite series is One Piece and she keeps a spreadsheet of the hundreds of shows she’s watched over the years. She wanted the album to reflect the fanciful chaos of an anime romantic dramedy, down to the jazzy pep of its intro track and the Japanese voice actors who frequently chime in between songs. 

The protagonist is named Tsuki, which is Japanese for “moon,” and as the show progresses, Kelly and her friends slowly come to realize how much Tsuki’s life mirrors her own. The thrill of new love unfolds on the Saba-featuring “Ikea” before the butterflies start to make her second-guess herself over Capt.Pigment’s gossamer synth warbles on “Nervous.” “Thirsty” and “Law of Equivalent Exchange” are both pleas for understanding that lead into the breakup and spirited blowout of “Oden.” Finally, in a three-track closing suite, Moonstone reaffirms her love of self. No one person inspired the entirety of New Moon; several crushes, breakups, and makeups inform the show’s antagonist Ryu. “All of these songs physically place me in a time, in a day, in a feeling, in an emotion, in a fleeting thought,” Moonstone says. 

While Moonstone made a few of the songs beforehand—”Ikea” and the self-produced, Pink Siifu-featuring “Day 1’s,” in particular, date from years prior—the rest of New Moon came together in the midst of these relationships. Late in the process, Kelly’s manager Marvel, also known as Big Gator Bossman, was the one who came up with the idea to turn New Moon into a concept album and helped Kelly flesh it out. The album originally began with the Kaelin Ellis-produced “Moon Rising,” which was moved to the back when they thought up the idea to create a more deliberate theme song. Moonstone likens the self-titled intro to a TV show pilot and wanted something that combined the zany bliss of the theme for The Fairly OddParents with the jazz themes of some of her favorite anime. Producer and multi-instrumentalist Chrissianity, a friend of Marvel’s who also made the beat for “Law of Equivalent Exchange,” brought the song to life, playing every instrument and helping pull back the curtain on Kelly’s universe. 

Once the album was done, Kelly went into the rollout confident in what she and her team had made. But now comes the hardest part: promoting it. Kelly begrudgingly did her part, making TikToks and Instagram Reels, some of which were directly about her annoyance at having to do so. “I’m still mastering the art of being perceived. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong career to not want to be perceived,” she sighs. But her efforts bore fruit. “Nanabooboo,” a teasing kiss-off to an ex, was the lead single and caught some eyes and ears, but it was “IKEA,” released second, that eventually took off. Through a combination of the Saba feature, good marketing, and even better product, it went mini-viral, causing her monthly listeners to skyrocket. That set the stage for New Moon to find its crowd of lovers, yearners, weeaboos and hip-hop heads who are slowly forming Moonstone’s fanbase.

Others have been listening, too. When Kelly and I split up for the day, she tells me she has to head home and prepare to lay down vocals for a Jay Electronica song later that night. Those vocals appeared on “...shine for me,” a standout track that she has all to herself on A Written Testimony: Mars, The Uninhabited Planet, one of several projects the elusive New Orleans rapper dropped out of the blue a few weekends ago. That kind of look coming her way not even a month after dropping her debut album is monumental and well-earned. To be honest, I should’ve seen it coming. We cut through McCarren Park to get to the train station, and about halfway through, we stumbled on a message scrawled out in sidewalk chalk that was too on the nose to ignore. I told Kelly to go stand next to it while I snapped a picture—maybe for the future, maybe as a reminder that we never know where this life will take us. The first word in that sentence? "Moonshot."