Taylor C. McLendon (born 1995), known professionally as Ivy Sole, is an American rapper and record producer from

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Ivy Sole has been a member of Indigold, Liberal Art, and Third Eye Optiks. Ivy Sole has been mentioned as an example of the growing movement of

non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...

artists.

Early life

McLendon grew up

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

in a

Southern Baptist Church The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestant, and the second-largest Ch ...

and received all of their vocal training in a church setting. McLendon was raised in a predominantly black neighborhood, but attended a predominantly white magnet school. A week after their 18th birthday, McLendon attended a

Mac Miller Malcolm James McCormick (January 19, 1992 – September 7, 2018), known by the stage name Mac Miller, was an American rapper. He began his career in Pittsburgh's local hip hop music, hip hop scene in 2007, at the age of 15. In 2010, he signed ...

concert featuring

Rapsody Marlanna Evans (born January 21, 1983), better known by her stage name Rapsody, is an American rapper. After signing with music producer 9th Wonder's music label It's a Wonderful World Music Group, she released a series of mixtapes and collab ...

and

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as the "Queen of Rap" and one of the most influential rappers of all time, she is noted for her ...

, which they cite as their inspiration for pursuing a musical career.

Career

Ivy Sole began their musical career by joining three different collaborations called Indigold, Liberal Art, and Third Eye Optiks. In 2016, Ivy Sole began their solo career with the debut mixtape entitled ''Eden'', which would be followed by the extended plays ''West'' and then ''East''.

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

noted that Ivy Sole tackles mental health issues in their music video for the track entitled "Life" off of the extended play ''East''. In 2018, Ivy Sole released their debut full-length album entitled ''Overgrown''.

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

did a review of the track entitled "Achilles" off of the album ''Overgrown''. In 2020, a live recording of ''Overgrown'' entitled ''Overgrown* (Live from Philadelphia)'' was released.

Personal life

McLendon moved to Philadelphia in 2011 to attend the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

. They graduated with the Class of 2015 with a degree in business. Describing their sexual orientation to ''Billboard'', McLendon stated: "I like women and I like men. I like women a lot though. Women have me on my ass, which is rare — I feel like I'm a very calm and collected person." McLendon identifies as

and uses ''

they/them Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'', and ''themselves'' (also ''themself'' and ''theirself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun derived from plural they. It typically occu ...

'' pronouns.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Eden'' (2016) * ''Overgrown'' (2018) * ''Candid'' (2022)

Live albums

* ''Overgrown* (Live from Philadelphia)'' (2020)

Extended plays

* ''West'' (2017) * ''East'' (2017) * ''SOUTHPAW'' (2020)

Singles

* "Backwoods" (2018) * "Rollercoaster" (2018) * "Life" (feat. Dave B) (2016)

Guest appearances

* Cro – "fake you." from ''tru'' (2017) *Franky Hill – "Lies" from ''User'' (2018) * B4bonah – "4 U" from ''B4Beginning'' (2019) * Hadji Gaviota – "tHAt SiNkiNg feeliNg..." from ''ANCHORS'' (2019) * Myles Cream – "Peace" from ''Grillo'' (2019) * Charles Fauna – "Listen" from ''Yonder'' (2020) * Birthh – "Ultraviolet" from ''WHOA'' (2020) * Blossom – "Sass (sowle Remix)" from ''Sass (sowle Remix)'' (2020) * Pool Cosby – "Day Breaks" from ''Day Breaks'' (2020) *

Shura Shura () is the term for collective decision-making in Islam. It can, for example, take the form of a council or a referendum. The Quran encourages Muslims to decide their affairs in consultation with each other. Shura is mentioned as a praise ...

– "elevator girl" from ''elevator girl'' (2020)

Concert tours

*The Femmetape Summer Tour

References

External links

Official website

Ivy Sole
website at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

Ivy Sole
discography at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sole, Ivy 1995 births Living people American non-binary musicians Non-binary singers American LGBTQ rappers 21st-century American rappers American neo soul singers Rappers from Philadelphia Musicians from Charlotte, North Carolina