Professional hip-hop in the mix for Wharton sophomore

Walking along Locust Walk is a young woman striving to be a celebrity. Her fans call her Ivy Sole, but her professors stick with Taylor McLendon.

A Wharton sophomore, McLendon aspires to be a professional hip-hop artist. About three months ago, she released her first full album, “Exquisite Corpse,” and she hopes to release her next album, “Where the Side Walk Ends,” early next year.

Ever since she was a child, McLendon has been involved in music. At the age of five, she started taking piano lessons. Over the next few years, McLendon picked up violin, clarinet, bassoon and percussion.

“My first foray into hip-hop was probably in eighth and ninth grade,” McLendon said, explaining that she truly found her calling when she and her friends began goofing around with some hip-hop.

Once she decided in tenth grade that she was going to be a professional performer, McLendon’s next decision was deciding between going to a conservatory or getting a degree in business.

“For me, it was an easy decision because nobody can really teach you how to rap. Either you can or you can’t,” McLendon said. “But I did think that being educated about the business side of music would be beneficial whether I decided to pursue it professionally or not.”

She then proceeded to Google “best business school,” and Wharton came up first. McLendon, who is from Charlotte, N.C., hadn’t even heard of Wharton or Penn before.

Now at Penn, McLendon is trying to take advantage of every opportunity she finds.

“I get inspiration for my music from literally everywhere,” she said.

Last semester, for example, she took a course on jazz and found herself incorporating music from the class into her own work.

“I was able to take some of the songs that we heard and apply them to a modern context, which is always amazing to me how the music back then can be so relevant now,” McLendon said. “That’s one of my major goals as an artist — if I can make a song that 50 years from now can send you back to that time but still be relevant, I think that would be the greatest thing ever.”

McLendon’s musical style is distinct. In most of her songs, she raps over a smooth background that combines funk, fusion, soul and jazz. Inspired by the funk and soul her dad listened to, McLendon likes to accompany her lyrical rapping with complex instrumentation.

McLendon also finds inspiration outside of the classroom. During African Rhythms practice, McLendon will realize that a rhythm the group is performing would be perfect for a song.

She even got the idea for her first album’s title from one of her many Penn extracurriculars. When the Excelano Project was trying to think of a performance theme, the group came up with the concept of Exquisite Corpse. The group ended up not using it for the show, so McLendon decided that it would be perfect for her album.

“The concept of an exquisite corpse is that you have very different ideas coming together to make one cohesive body of work,” McLendon explained. “And I think that was accomplished by the album.”

When she’s not at practice for African Rhythms and the Excelano Project, McLendon works on the board for the Society for Pre-Law Students of Color, as well as for Penn’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“People tell me that I’m too involved, but while I’m here, I need to take advantage of everything that I can,” McLendon said. “Nobody ever said, ‘Oh, I should have gotten more sleep in college.’”

McLendon also takes advantage of other student musicians at Penn. Two of her best friends, College junior Ikechi Nnamani and College sophomore Alexander Goldman, collaborated with McLendon on “Exquisite Corpse”.

McLendon believes musicians at Penn have a mutual respect that leads them to find each other.

“If people are working on music, especially in the hip-hop industry, and you respect their music, you’re going to go seek them out,” she said.

“I think she’s a very talented rapper, and that’s one reason why I enjoy collaborating with her so much,” Goldman added. “She has a really good ear for beat selection.”

Nnamani agrees with Goldman.

“She’s better than most female hip-hop artists out there — she raps with a purpose,” he said.

Beyond Penn, McLendon is trying to make her way into the Philadelphia network of musicians. She performs at places like The Blockley on 38th and Chestnut streets and has opened for a few established artists, including Kendrick Lamar at a SPEC-TRUM show.

“He brought me on stage to rap for the crowd, and it was amazing,” she said. “Definitely a highlight of my music and undergraduate experience.”

While she busies herself with classes and extracurriculars, McLendon knows her ultimate end goal. After graduation, she plans on touring with 3rd Eye Awake, the arts collective that gave McLendon her start.

Based in her home town, 3rd Eye Awake has been McLendon’s base for production. Members of the collective are now spread out across the East Coast, but they all stay in touch and continue to collaborate.

One of McLendon’s favorite songs on “Exquisite Corpse” is “Apache” because it was a collaboration with two fellow 3rd Eye Awake artists.

Much of McLendon’s music influence today, she said, comes from her parents.

Growing up, McLendon’s mother always told her, “If you can’t tell me, tell a page.” Whether it’s through poetry or song, McLendon has always lived by that motto.

“I think that just making music in and of itself is therapeutic,” McLendon said. “So regardless of where this takes me, I’m going to do it.”

Music video for “From Me To You”

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