The opening track to her 2016 extended play,East, "Everything To Lose" showcases the exemplary delivery of the Philadelphia-based rapper/poet. She bears her influences on her sleeve, with the track being built on a sputtering vocal sample that sounds simultaneously warm and glitched out.
The boom-bap groove that eases through the first half of the track sounds like much of the conscious Southern hip-hop being created in the 2010s, a sound that could have easily come from the Dreamville vaults. As the piece progresses, the arrangement stimulates interest and maintains forward momentum, developing the beat with wildly bouncing 808s, dubby-electronic brass, and pizzicato strings, all colored with flourishes of a piano.
Lyrically, the track highlights Ivy Sole's skills as an emcee. Her opening verse displays an intricate internal rhyme scheme, using assonance and consonance alike to forge novel rhythms over the straightforward beat. Rather than staying on top of the beat, she ducks in and out, weaving around the strong pulses of the instrumental.
On the cut, Sole wrestles with what it's like as a Black womxn navigating the hip-hop industry. Her tenacity shines through, however, and her charisma and command of the beat grasp the listeners' interest with a firm and tender grip.
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