{"id":911635,"date":"2026-09-27T13:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T13:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911635\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T13:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T13:30:11","slug":"rapper-and-actor-eve-looks-back-i-was-the-only-girl-in-the-boardroom-in-major-label-meetings-that-philly-girl-had-to-come-out-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911635\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapper and actor Eve looks back: \u2018I was the only girl in the boardroom in major label meetings \u2013 that Philly girl had to come out\u2019 | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eve in 2000 wearing a red sleeveless top, red trousers and belt, and red heels, reclining on some white stairs with her thumbs in her pockets, and recreating the image in 2026<\/a>Eve in 2000 and 2026. Later photograph: P\u00e5l Hansen\/The Guardian. Styling: Andie Redman. Archive image: Harry Langdon\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Born Eve Jihan Jeffers in Philadelphia in 1978, rapper Eve released her debut album, Let There Be Eve \u2026 Ruff Ryders\u2019 First Lady, in 1999; it entered the Billboard 200 at No\u00a01. She\u00a0followed its\u00a0success with the platinum-selling Scorpion, which went on to win a Grammy for the single Let Me Blow Ya\u00a0Mind. As an actor, she appeared in the Barbershop films and starred in her own sitcom, Eve. She married London-based entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper in 2014; together they have a son, and she is stepmother to his four children. Eve will tour the UK and Europe in 2027.<\/p>\n

This was taken in Miami, where I was recording Scorpion. I was obsessed with red because of its astrological affiliation with Scorpio \u2013 everything had to be that colour. My hair is short\u00a0because I convinced my hairstylist to put both a perm relaxer and colour in, which you\u2019re not supposed to do. All my hair fell out, but thankfully it looked good. I felt powerful and sexy.<\/p>\n

I knew I wanted to be a rapper as far back as 15. I was that kid at school who tried her hand at everything, whether it was tap dance or violin. I\u00a0started rapping at 11, and four years later I said to my mum: \u201cI know you probably want me to go to college, but I really want to do music.\u201d I thought she would be upset, but she wasn\u2019t. There was only one plan B, and that was special-effects makeup. Some days I still think about retraining in it.<\/p>\n

Coming from Philadelphia definitely shaped the rapper I went on to become. Philly girls are known for being feisty, for not taking no for an answer. It\u2019s the underdog city \u2013 close to New York, but people usually skip over us to get there \u2013 and as a result Philly people are used to working their asses off. Growing up, it was a lot more dangerous than it is now, so I saw a lot of drugs and guns, but the dealers\u00a0were also guys who looked out for me \u2013 they were friends. I still knew I wanted to get out. I had a sheer determination that things would turn out different for me.<\/p>\n

double quotation markI loved words, and when I wasn\u2019t in a battle trying to destroy someone\u2019s ego, I was also obsessing over poetry<\/p>\n

My rap battles started at school. I was battling the boys, often in patois, which is so ridiculous, because I\u2019m not even Jamaican. I would talk about their dick size, but also how they lived with their mum and were broke and taking the bus to school, ignoring the fact that I was, too. I loved words, and when I wasn\u2019t in a battle trying to destroy someone\u2019s ego, I was also obsessing over poetry.<\/p>\n

In my late teens, I met Ma$e. Like a birdie on my shoulder, he started telling me I should take rap seriously. After that, I got signed to Dre\u2019s Aftermath. At the time, I was calling myself Eve of Destruction, because I\u00a0really was that girl \u2013 I had an attitude. Eight months later, I got dropped. It was devastating to have my dream taken away, but if I hadn\u2019t experienced that initial failure, I\u00a0probably wouldn\u2019t\u00a0have had the success I\u00a0had next. After I had spent a\u00a0month depressed on my mum\u2019s couch, Jimmy Iovine called and said I should meet Ruff Ryders [a hip-hop label and\u00a0collective that included DMX, the\u00a0Lox, Jadakiss, Swizz Beatz].<\/p>\n

Ruff Ryders were my safe place. I\u2019d gone through a lot of haunting experiences trying to get my music out there previously \u2013 the kind of bullshit that all women go through in most industries. I\u2019d go to New York to play my demo to some producer, and instead of taking me seriously he\u2019d hit\u00a0on me and say, \u201cLet\u2019s go for dinner.\u201d By comparison, Ruff Ryders were the opposite. If anything, they were trying to cover me up, as I loved to wear little heels and shorts and tube tops. They were like: \u201cHere, put this vest on! Get these Timberlands on!\u201d They also taught me how to format a song. At the start, I was just a battle rapper, but working with them was a hip-hop boot camp.<\/p>\n

All of which led to the success of Scorpion. I was a huge fan of all genres of music, from Biggie Smalls to No Doubt, and when I wrote Let Me Blow Ya Mind I knew we should get Gwen Stefani to feature on it. I was the only girl in the boardroom in those major label meetings and that Philly girl often had to come out. They were initially resistant because I was a rapper and she was a rock star, but I said: \u201cGuys, this will work. Trust me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though I won that particular fight, the response to a lot of my suggestions was often: \u201cOh, that\u2019s cute. We\u2019re not doing that.\u201d I felt I couldn\u2019t be my full, excited self because there were so many miserable motherfuckers around me in those boardrooms. The atmosphere made me feel like I had to suppress myself and stay small. Decades later, my old\u00a0A&R actually called up and apologised. He said: \u201cI really wish we listened to you a little bit more \u2013\u00a0you had some good ideas.\u201d That\u00a0was\u00a0validating.<\/p>\n

When things took off, there was no time to celebrate. I was on to the next studio, on to the next show. But I remember hearing my voice in an SUV on Hot 97, one of the biggest hip-hop radio stations in New York, and thinking, \u201cThis is it. This is the moment.\u201d I\u2019d meet young women with\u00a0the same paw prints tattooed on\u00a0their chest as mine, who would tell\u00a0me it had gotten them in trouble with their parents. \u201cThis is amazing,\u201d\u00a0I\u2019d say, \u201cbut I did not tell you to do that!\u201d<\/p>\n

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The grind was gruelling, and in the\u00a0aftermath of Scorpion I was burned out. I struggled with anxiety and depression, but nobody talked about mental health back then. Instead, I was encouraged to drink and get on with whatever we had to do that day. Like every young artist, I\u00a0was definitely tortured. I hung around the\u00a0wrong people, did the wrong things to try to cope, and went down\u00a0the path of self-medicating. There were many moments when I\u00a0would call home and\u00a0cry to my mum and tell her: \u201cI\u00a0can\u2019t do this any more.\u201d I was sad and lonely and my friendships were breaking up. I was always thinking, \u201cWait, who changed? Did\u00a0I\u00a0change? Did\u00a0you? Did we change?\u201d I\u2019d lost a sense of belonging that I\u2019d always had.<\/p>\n

I realised that being a musician was a\u00a0gruelling ass life, and had a period of time where I straddled the disciplines of being a rapper and actor and a TV personality. But that was exhausting, too. I would go to the club, get in at 2am, and have to be on set at 9am, all of which was unsustainable. One day I\u00a0looked at myself and thought, \u201cWhat life do you really want? I just want to be happy and healthy.\u201d I started implementing things like therapy, acupuncture and healing work. I still have days where I am overwhelmed \u2013\u00a0life is not perfect \u2013 but at least I have the tools to cope.<\/p>\n

Rapping in my 40s is a different act\u00a0than it was in 2001. What remains is my feistiness \u2013 it still comes out when it needs to. But this time I\u00a0am present. I don\u2019t have anybody breathing on my neck, saying: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to sell these records.\u201d I also have a total sense of wonder about my life, that it\u2019s taken me this far. I wake up and think, \u201cDamn. How did a girl from\u00a0Philly get here?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eve in 2000 wearing a red sleeveless top, red trousers and belt, and red heels, reclining on some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-911635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}