Eve - Who’s That Girl?: Memoir

[George]

Let’s discuss the Grammy-winning rapper, actress and one of the former hosts of The Talk.

[George]

Hip-hop artist and actress Eve to perform at San Diego Pride Festival in July
SDGLN Staff | Sat, 06/05/2010 - 10:04am



SAN DIEGO -- Grammy Award-winning rap and hip-hop artist Eve Jihan Jeffers, known for her unique brand of glamor in music, film and fashion, will be among the headliners at this year’s two-day San Diego LGBT Pride festival, scheduled for July 17and 18, in Balboa Park.

After her successful hits, “What Ya Want” and “Let Me Blow Ya Mind,” Eve, as she is known, is blazing the tour trail while preparing an adventurous, more mature album titled, “Lip Lock,” which is slated to transcend the rap sounds of yesterday while “representing the woman I am today.”

During the late 1990s and early millennium, Eve was a key component and the only female in the seminal rap squad, The Ruff Ryders. The crew consisted of DMX, The Lox and Drag-On. She stood out as the sexy, no-nonsense street savvy “chick” who was acclaimed for “holding her own among the boys.”

Anchored by chart-topping singles such as the vivacious “Gotta Man” and the anti-domestic-abuse classic, “Love Is Blind,” Eve's 1999 debut album, “Let There Be Eve … Ruff Ryder’s First Lady,” became a double-platinum success.

Her 2001 sophomore release, “Scorpion,” went platinum while garnering crossover appeal with the Grammy Award-winning mega-hit “Let Me Blow Ya Mind,” featuring Gwen Stefani. Eve soon went on to record a third album, “Eve-Olution in collaboration with Alicia Keys, which featured the Grammy-nominated single, “Satisfaction,” produced by Dr. Dre.

In 2002, Eve made her movie debut in the action blockbuster "XXX."

Soon afterward Eve played the feisty female barber, Terri, in Ice Cube’s "Barbershop." Her performance attracted the attention of UPN Network, which afforded her the opportunity to produce and star in a self-titled sitcom about a fashion designer.

Since then Eve has taken on additional roles in "Barbershop 2," "The Woodsman" and "The Cookout."

Eve recently started her own film and production company and is preparing to launch a fashion line. She also had recent stints on "Glee" and "Whip It!" – plus will appear on an upcoming VH1 "Behind the Music" episode scheduled to air this summer.

Eve's performance at the San Diego Pride festival is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. Saturday, July 17, on the festival’s Cox Communications main stage.

Last week, San Diego Pride booked beat-boxer and "American Idol" alum, Blake Lewis, who will perform at 6:10 p.m. Sunday, July 18, on the main stage. Other headline entertainment will soon be announced.

[George]

R.E.S.P. … EVE
Posted by admin on 7/16/10 • Categorized as Concert, Dance, Music, Pride


Eve

By Pat Sherman / GSD Editor

Hip-hop artist, actress and former TV talk show host Eve says she hopes cuts from her forthcoming CD, “Lip Lock” are well-received when she appears on San Diego Pride’s festival main stage Saturday night, July 17, at 8:15 p.m.—her first Pride performance ever.

“I always say, if the gays don’t like you, you’re not that cool; I definitely believe that,” said the 31-year-old Philly native, Born Eve Jihan Jeffers.

The rapper, who has appeared in two episodes of the hit show, “Glee,” said she is aware of having a gay fan base.

“It’s nice people wanting me to perform at something like this,” she said. “I’m just hoping that they have a good time. … I know it’s going to be fun; I can’t wait.”

Eve, whose hits include “What Ya Want,” “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” with Gwen Stefani, and “Gangsta Lovin” with Alicia Keys, said she was not initially digging the album title “Lip Lock,” suggested by one of its producers, Salaam Remi, whose has also worked with Amy Winehouse and Nas.

“I’m like, I don’t really get it,” said Eve, speaking from her home in Los Angeles. “But then as we started making the music … I definitely wanted a title that sounded sexy that grabbed your attention. This album, for me, is celebrating. I’m in a really good place. The music is upbeat, it’s happy—but not sappy-happy—it’s sexy-happy.”

The album includes six tracks originally slated for 2007’s unreleased “Here I Am,” which led to her disillusion with Interscope Records.

“That’s how I started rebuilding this new album, which was nice, because I didn’t have to start from scratch,” she said. “There’s probably more dance music [on this album], but I tell people this all the time, like, it’ll always be hip-hop, because that’s who I am—I’m an emcee first.

“With Salaam, we’ve done everything, from, like, some dirty south stuff, extra in-the-club, in-your-face, 120 beats-per-minute. I think it’s everything I love about music. I also listen to reggae a lot, so you’ll hear some reggae influences in it.”

Eve said she is at a place in her life where she trusts her creative and professional instincts more than ever.

“I don’t know if [“Lip Lock”] is more mature, but obviously I have grown,” she said. “I’ve been in the business for a long time. I just know myself better. I don’t second guess myself as much as I used to, which is a very nice feeling.”

Asked for her take on hip-hop’s sometimes misogynistic lyrics, Eve said it comes down to personal and parental responsibility.

“I always say it starts at home,” she said. “If I had a child, a lot of the music that’s out there and a lot of videos that are on … I probably wouldn’t even let them watch half of it … but at the same time you can’t tell an artist not to say certain things.

“For me, as a female, I’ve never paid attention to it. You know, people talk about bitches, ho’s, this, that and the other—you ain’t talking about me. That’s just not going to happen, so it never really bothers me. I have definitely been able to carve a big respect in the business because a lot of my male counterparts have seen me in the studio writing, just like they write, or they see me hustling like they’ve hustled to come up in the business. No one’s ever disrespected me and no one ever would. You teach people how to treat you.”

Eve conceded that, as a woman in rap, she’s had to work harder to earn that respect—particularly when cutting her chops on the testosterone-fueled Ruff Ryders label. Her 1999 debut, “Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady,” is the second album ever by a female rap artist to chart at No. 1.

“It sounds like an exaggeration, but really there was probably 30 to 50 guys around all the time [at Ruff Ryders],” Eve recalled. “They did not treat me like the princess, the little girl. They treated me like, ‘you want to be in this group, we have to see how you perform,’ and if the guys were in the studio for 24 hours, then I was in the studio for 24 hours.”

[twilight]

Eve is a talented female rapper, i hope she gets the success she deserves.

[sdot23]

Can't believe the last time she released an album was 2002! She's definitely underrated as far as female rappers go...I hope she can catch a break.

[tamed09]

Sounds good, she seems really excited about the material!

[Fat Ass Kelly Price]

Tambourine was definitely a jam.

[Oɴʟуßoy®]

This album was due back in 07. What happened?

[outrageous]

I like what I hear.

Hope this actually comes out and smashes.

[twilight]

So what label is she with now?

[kirby2725]

Tambourine was a hit - the album should have come out then

[David]

I hope its good. She sounded awesome on the My Chick Bad remix.

[George]

Some videos from San Diego Pride:

[twilight]

Jul 20, 2010 13:30:45 GMT -5 David said:

I hope its good. She sounded awesome on the My Chick Bad remix.

Yeah she was great on that.

[twilight]

Tambourine did'nt have the impact that she and her label were looking for tho, plus it was almost like they were still making additions to the album, it just simply was'nt ready.

[tamed09]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaiva0MEcsU&feature=related

Sounds like a banger!

[tamed09]

Album is out 1/11/11 and she had her album photoshoot two days ago

[tamed09]

Eve is signed to...........EMI!!!!

[twilight]

Aug 19, 2010 0:43:10 GMT -5 tamed09 said:

Eve is signed to...........EMI!!!!

This is great news i wonder why she left Interscope ?

[Oprah]

Aug 19, 2010 4:02:38 GMT -5 twilight said:

Aug 19, 2010 0:43:10 GMT -5 tamed09 said:

Eve is signed to...........EMI!!!!

This is great news i wonder why she left Interscope ?

LOL. Why do you think?

Can't wait for this album. Did the shelved LP ever leak?

[tamed09]

^No because she took a couple of the songs with her when she left.

[George]

I think the only songs that were released/leaked from her Here I Am album were:
Ain’t No Stopping Me
All Night Long
Give It To You (featuring Sean Paul)
Tambourine
Fantasy (featuring Robin Thicke)
Fire

[George]

BET's new documentary My Mic Sounds Nice: The Truth About Women In Hip-Hop airs tonight at 10PM!

[Samer]

I first saw Eve in her collabo with Gwen and I really liked her uptempo material since then. Hope she comes back storng. But it seems Onika has taken the throne from her, Missy and Kim

[twilight]

Oct 15, 2010 16:52:25 GMT -5 Samer said:

I first saw Eve in her collabo with Gwen and I really liked her uptempo material since then. Hope she comes back storng. But it seems Onika has taken the throne from her, Missy and Kim

I would'nt say that she has snatched the throne, but alot of the focus is on her now because she is fresh and has built alot of hype around her along with the image thing.

[tamed09]

Eve is a different rapper than Onika...totally different. She still has a fanbase that knows what they want to hear from her and she's covered topics that other women didn't really touch.

[tamed09]

Music Related Part of New Interview fo Inked Magazine

She’s ready to move on from Ruff Ryders, but are fans ready to move on with her? “When I went to take label meetings and they would listen to the music, a lot of them would be like, ‘Yeah, that’s good, but what’s up with the Ruff Ryders shit?’ I’m like, ‘Yo, I was 21 then.’ It’s been years now. I’ve done a million different things. ‘Tambourine’ isn’t Ruff Ryders. The records I did with Gwen [Stefani] weren’t Ruff Ryders. I trust my audience enough to think they’ve grown, just like me.” She pauses, then amends her statement a bit: “I’m hoping for that, but we’ll see.”

Eve’s grown from “That Girl” to a woman. “I hate it when people say, ‘The old Eve, the old Eve.’ No! I can’t pretend to be that girl anymore. If I did, people would see that and be like, Why is she trying to be that same person?” So she’s leaving “the old Eve” behind and looking forward. And just a quick glance at her makes it clear that this is not the same girl who rolled with the Ruff Ryders more than a decade ago. Back then she had buzzed, bleached hair, a wardrobe not too different from the boys she rapped with, and a don’t-even-think-about-messing-with-me attitude. Her nickname was “pit bull in a skirt.” Today, she looks—well, see for yourself. She’s more minx than pit bull. And walking around the Lower East Side in stiletto boots and skintight pants topped with a leather jacket, she learned that New Yorkers aren’t shy about voicing their admiration.

Musically, she’s turned a new page as well. “My deal with Interscope is completely over, thank God. … Don’t print that, though!” Eve says, before quickly changing her mind. “Actually, fuck it. I’m with EMI now. I was able to leave and take some music with me but start over, basically.” The album, now called Lip Lock, will be roughly half tracks she took with her and half new material. Since signing with EMI this summer, she’s been busy writing and recording new music, even heading back into the studio with Swizz Beatz. Along the way she’s tested out a couple of songs, like “Give It Here,” with crowds in Europe.


“You’re like, ‘Hey, hey, hey’—the whole hook,” she promises with a smirk. “Anybody can sing it. It gets the crowd up easy.” There’s diversity to the album as well. “Kiss Myself” is more melodic; Akon-produced “Treasure” is the album’s ballad; and Eve’s favorite track, “Forgive Me,” has an old-school reggae vibe. The first single, “Superstar,” is still under wraps, however, as Eve hopes it will blow up on first listen.

The one constant is that Eve is sticking to what she’s good at, being an MC. She limits her singing to the occasional hook. “Singing is so different to me. No thank you, I don’t want to play myself—unless it’s karaoke, and then I belt it out,” she says. The cast and crew of her eponymous TV show used to go to a hole-in-the-wall karaoke bar every Thursday. “You have to be drunk to do karaoke, though,” she continues. “It’s one of those things … I need four or five before.” She says she usually starts out with “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics before moving on to rock songs by the Sex Pistols and anything else outside her own genre.

While she likes her karaoke eclectic, she wants her own music to work as a unit. “For me, this record tells the complete story of the night of a girl,” Eve says. Her aim was to make an album a girl wants to listen to while getting ready to go out to the club. To make the assorted sounds feel cohesive, she limited herself to just a few producers instead of using a different producer for each track, like she has in the past.

[tamed09]

To honour her audience, the American also performed a single from her forthcoming 2011 album. The single, Here I am, has heavy influence of heavy metal elements and the crowd appeared to appreciate the song despite the fact that they were hearing it for the very first time.

www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=7&aid=6893&dir=2010/November/Monday29

[Deleted]

Nov 29, 2010 15:27:17 GMT -5 tamed09 said:

The single, Here I am, has heavy influence of heavy metal

Eve Jafar Jeffers may wanna rethink this single, lest she be branded a Nicki biter, as her album track of the same time is kinda heavy metal. Tell me those opening guitar riffs don't sound lifted from an '80s Iron Maiden record. smh.

Really doe, I'm excited that all these ladies have been given a chance to re-enter the game. "Bring it on, bitchezzzz," I say.

[**βécky**™]

“You’re like, ‘Hey, hey, hey’—the whole hook,” she promises with a smirk. “Anybody can sing it. It gets the crowd up easy.” There’s diversity to the album as well. “Kiss Myself” is more melodic; Akon-produced “Treasure” is the album’s ballad; and Eve’s favorite track, “Forgive Me,” has an old-school reggae vibe. The first single, “Superstar,” is still under wraps, however, as Eve hopes it will blow up on first listen.