Malucci Is Telling Stories of a Bandit In Her Newest EP
Lima-born singer and rapper Malucci is carving out her lane in Latin urban music with a blend of reggaeton, Latin trap, and R&B. She launched her career in LA back in 2018, first turning heads with a “Po’encima” freestyle inspired by Arcángel and Bryant Myers and has been building momentum ever since! Known for writing her own lyrics, Malucci treats each track like a chapter: confessional, cinematic, and unapologetic, delivered with a distinctive flow and a diva edge.
Her breakout hit “NO ES TUYO” has surpassed 200 million views on YouTube, cementing her as a standout independent voice with a real global pull. She’s also built a massive digital platform, with over 2 million followers on TikTok, 1.3 million YouTube subscribers, and a fast-growing audience on Instagram. If you want to dive into her world and learn all about how she’s building her empire, keep reading below!
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FEATURE INTERVIEW:
“Relatos de una Bandida” positions each track as a diary chapter. How do you structure a cohesive emotional arc across an EP, and how do you avoid cliché while keeping confessionals close to your heart?
Relatos de una Bandida has two parts I don’t wrap it up in one chapter. The first part, the one I’m releasing now, is me in the moment, hype, bold, a little reckless. There are seductive highs, jealousy spirals, and those tracks where I’m just fronting and saying what I want. That’s part of the diary too.
I don’t write like, “Okay, this song needs to be sad”, I build around the emotion and let it show itself. The arc comes from the mood shifts, because emotions aren’t linear, they’re messy. And I think I avoid cliché by being specific. I’d rather give you one real scene than a thousand generic feelings.
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The record blends reggaeton, Latin Trap, R&B, and Funk. Which track hits the deepest to how you feel in this exact moment?
It depends because my mood shifts constantly and this EP is built to hold to that. Right now, I think the track that hits me the hardest is “Por Ti”. It’s basically a jealous spiral, and I’m not gonna lie… I love making “toxic” records. I’m good at taking the feelings people have but don’t admit because they may be messy, irrational or not politically correct and turning them into something honest and catchy.
But tomorrow it could be a completely different song. Some days I’m more in a “Zaza” vibe like, I just want to feel hot, free, be a baddie and move, that’s it! That’s the point of blending Reggaeton, Latin Trap, R&B, and Funk. It gives me different colors, so the record can meet me wherever I am that day.
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You write your own lyrics and foreground honesty over mood. When you sit with a blank page, what personal truth do you start from and how do you decide which moments are universal enough to resonate beyond your own experience?
When I sit with a blank page, I don’t start with a “message”. I start with a feeling. Usually the beat tells me where to go. One line will pop out naturally, like something I’d actually say in the moment and that first sentence becomes the seed. Sometimes it ends up as the hook, sometimes it becomes the entry point, but either way, I build the whole song around that initial truth.
And when it comes to deciding what’s universal, I actually don’t try to. I feel like the second you write like you’re trying to be relatable, that’s when it turns into a cliché. I focus on what happened to me and how it felt , even when it’s irrational or not flattering. The more honest and open I am, the more people find themselves in it. Sometimes listeners don’t even realize they’ve felt something until they hear it said out loud in a song. It has happened to me as well .
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How does being Lima-born and LA-trained shape your worldview and musical ethos?
Being Lima-born I think gave me my range and my curiosity. I grew up hearing what everyone hears on the radio, but I was also the kid who would go home and dig deeper. YouTube was coming up, along with Limewire and Ares. I was on the computer researching music, going down rabbit holes. I remember hearing Reggaeton super young , I think the first song I heard was “Yo No Soy Tu Marido” and being like, wait… what is this? It felt different and I connected to it immediately.
Then I started discovering R&B and Rap on my own, even when it wasn’t what most people around me were listening to. That gave me an “outsider” perspective, in a good way. I wasn’t following rules, I was following what hit me. LA is where that curiosity turned into craft and scale. It wasn’t just hearing the music, it was feeling it in real life, seeing how scenes move, how songs live in clubs, in cars, in studios, and also understanding the industry behind it. So that’s how I blended both worlds.
Jacket: Thierry Mugler (Vintage)
In what ways do you navigate bilingual/bicultural nuances in both lyric and cadence, to speak to a global audience without subsuming your origin?
With bilingual writing, I don’t code-switch just to be bilingual. Spanish is my home base, it’s my first language and it’s where my voice feels most natural. I’ve never done a full English record because honestly it can feel out of place for me. Maybe that changes one day, but right now I’m not forcing it.
What I do love is using English as a tool. Some emotions hit harder in English, and some phrases don’t translate cleanly into Spanish. Either the meaning shifts or the rhythm dies. So if I’m trying to capture a feeling and Spanish isn’t giving me the exact shade I need, I’ll switch for a line, a hook, a punchline. It’s less about showing range and more about being precise. I try not to abuse it. If it doesn’t feel real in the moment, I don’t do it. The goal is that my audience connects with me.
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With Químico Ultra Mega and Jamby El Favo, how did the collaborations come about?
With Químico, it was pure studio fate,we were in the same space, the right beat came on, and the collaboration basically wrote itself. With Jamby, it was the opposite: I had a song where I could hear his voice on it and I thought he would be perfect for it . I reached out, he connected immediately, and he delivered exactly what the record needed.
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If you could collab with any other artist in the future, who would it be?
Dream-wise, I think Sean Paul would be insane for me. I’ve always loved his tone, his color, and the way he makes a record travel globally even to Spanish speakers that don’t even speak English.
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As an independent artist with a global following, how do you balance creative control?
Being independent is the reason I have the level of creative control I do. There’s no committee telling me what’s “marketable” or what version of myself I should be. I can follow the moment, if I want a record to be messy, funny, toxic, vulnerable, or all of it in one song, I can do that. I listen to advice of course, but at the end of the day the final decision is mine, and that’s important because my music is my voice and not a product designed by twenty people.
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In your opinion, how is your creativity disrupting the music industry as a whole?
As far as being disruptive , I don’t think you can fully plan that. You can be intentional, you can show up with quality and truth, but the impact part is something the audience decides when they connect to it. Sometimes a song lands harder than you expect, sometimes it doesn’t and I’m okay with that now. I focus on making my work honest and natural , and if it resonates, well that’s the disruption.
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Your TikTok and YouTube communities shape reception in real time. How do you listen to fan feedback without diluting your artistic intent?
I listen to my fans a lot, and I take their feedback seriously, but I don’t let it overwrite the work. I keep it close, but not like a command. Sometimes they want a certain vibe and I’m just not in that place emotionally. And if I force it, it won’t be my best work because it won’t be honest. So I’ll hold it in mind, and when I am in that mood, I go all in. I also try to balance familiarity and surprise. If I see people really connect with a certain energy, I’ll explore it a bit more so they can enjoy it more, but I’m not trying to repeat myself forever. Part of my job I think is also to give them things they didn’t know they needed yet.
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Can you share a moment when fans reactions changed your approach to your music or style you decided worked better?
A moment that genuinely shaped me was early on, when I was still finding my voice, literally. I used to rap/sing in a much deeper tone, and I started experimenting with a lighter delivery. Fans reacted to it immediately, and I realized it fit me more, it felt sexier, sharper, more “me.” than ever before. I leaned into it and it basically became part of my signature.
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If the EP is a cinematic diary, what is the visual language you’re building across videos, cover art, and campaigns?
When I say cinematic diary, I don’t mean I’m trapped in one aesthetic or one look. I mean the songs are written like scenes, you can see what’s happening even if you never watch a video. The details, the drama of it all… it plays in your head. It’s not trying necessarily to be cinematic, it just feels cinematic because the writing is visual.
And because “Relatos de una Bandida” has two parts, the visual language evolves with time, like the diary getting more intimate, darker, sharper, more exposed as the chapters continue. Part one is more impulsive and high-energy, part two will feel like the next layer of the story.
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How do you translate internal “relatos” into a visual grammar that travels across platforms and cultures?
To make it travel across platforms, I treat each platform like a different way to read the same diary. TikTok is the punchlines, the quotes. YouTube is where the full story can breathe music videos and visualizers that tell you the whole story. Instagram is the artifacts,cover art, styling and pictures that come from that same diary .
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In a genre that’s constantly shifting and highly image-driven, what pressures (external and internal) shape your decisions about longevity, authenticity, and risk-taking? How do you sustain a practice that remains bold after the breakthrough moment?
In an image driven genre and honestly in the music industry in general, pressure comes from everywhere! Fans, the internet, people around you and watching what’s working for other artists in real time. It’s very easy to see a sound blow up and think okay, I should do that too.
But I’ve learned that copying what worked for someone else usually doesn’t necessarily work long-term, because it’s not your energy. You can explore, experiment, but you can’t build longevity off someone else’s blueprint. Trends are fast, but identity lasts longer, from my experience.
For me, authenticity is checking in with what actually feels like me or what I enjoy making, what my voice naturally does, what my fans connect with because it’s mine. The goal isn’t to chase hype, it’s to build a catalog that still feels bold years from now. Risk-taking is part of that too, but it has to be my risk, not borrowed.
Jacket: Thierry Mugler (Vintage)
Beyond “Relatos de una Bandida”, what ambitious risks are you most excited to take in 2026—sonically?
The biggest sonic risk I’m excited to take next is not playing it safe. I want 2026 to be the year I stop holding back creatively, because a lot of the time the only thing stopping an artist it’s fear. Fear of how fans will take it, fear it won’t live up to the hype, fear it won’t fit the box people already know you for.
I’ve learned that mindset doesn’t protect you but blocks you. It blocks your growth and it honestly blocks your audience from getting the full version of you. So I’m trying to experiment louder, different textures, different rhythms and genre collisions. I want people to hear me in new spaces and to evolve with me in real time!
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How do you see your work influencing conversations about female autonomy, power dynamics, and their “voice” in Latin urban music?
I see my work contributing to conversations about female autonomy by insisting on complexity. To me, autonomy is the freedom to experience whatever you may be feeling without shame. My songs hold contradictions, confidence and insecurity, desire and doubt, independence and longing. Because that’s real life and women need to be portrayed as fully human.
I used to feel like I had to maintain a constant “Mala” image, but I’m intentionally unlearning that. I want listeners to feel like they can be messy, to question themselves, to move through love honestly. If the genre is evolving, I want it to evolve toward giving women more space …not to be perfect, but to be true.
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Who are your SHEROES?
Lana Del Rey, Nicki Minaj, and Karol G. Lana taught me the beauty of vulnerability. Nicki taught me power through personality and precision. Karol taught me that a woman in this space can build something massive while staying herself.
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What advice would you give your 16-year-old self?
I’d tell my 16-year-old self, “You’re doing everything right. Don’t be afraid of mistakes, they are literally how you learn who you are. Don’t be afraid of how people will perceive you.”
And most importantly, don’t shrink yourself to fit a mold. If you feel you have to change who you are to belong somewhere, don’t. People will learn to appreciate you in the future or maybe not, but at least you’ll be happy with yourself regardless.
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TEAM CREDITS:
Editor-in-Chief: Prince Chenoa
Feature Editor: Taylor Winter Wilson (@taylorwinter)
Photographer: Diego Villagra (@dievilmot)
Lighting: Peter Demas (@peterdemas25)
Wardrobe Stylist: Joyce Esquenazi Mitrani (@j___em)
Hair Stylist: Andrea Hernandez (@andreahernaandez)
Assistant Hair Stylist: Stephanie Alma (@hairbyalma.nyc)
