S. Samuel
Philadelphia rapper Eve recently spoke on her quest to etch out her rap identity post-Ruff Ryders era, explaining her evolution as an artist.
According to Eve, she has often struggled to move beyond her former label association.
“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? … 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 sh*t?’ 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 — I’m hoping for that, but we’ll see.” (Ink Magazine)
Last October, Eve opened up about her long-awaited Lip Lock solo album hitting store shelves in 2011.
“I’ve been saying the album is coming and it was but I left Interscope and now I’m on EMI so the album is definitely coming,” Eve said in an interview. “[It’s coming] at the top of the year. It’s called Lip Lock. It’ll be out at the top of the year, in March, I don’t have a date yet. But so far on the album, it’s Salaam Remi, Akon, of course Swizz Beatz — you don’t get out of Ruff Ryders. Obviously that’s my fam and I haven’t wrapped up the album yet so I’m sure you’ll hear some stuff from somebody.” (Ms Drama TV)
In mid-2010, Eve discussed being dropped by Interscope Records.
“[Interscope was] stupid because they didn’t drop me at first, they [just shelved me] and dropped the ball,” Eve explained in an interview. “After ‘Tambourine’, they straight up were like, ‘Umm, yeah, nah, we’re not putting out the record.’ After that I was like ‘Y’all gotta let me go. I’ve been here 11 years and you’re frontin on me?’ It got to that point…They promised me the machine. The machine is basically the roll out. It’s ‘Yo, when [‘Flirt’] comes out, we’ll give you this, we’ll give you that. And that’s what made me mad. It’d be different if we didn’t have a meeting where people promised me sh*t. If they were just like ‘Oh we’re going to put the album out and see what happens,’ that would be one thing…But they were like ‘No, we’re making sure this happens, it’s coming out on this date.’ It was concrete. But it’s all good, everything happens how it’s supposed to, when it’s supposed to.” (VIBE)
Last year, Ruff Ryders CEO Joaquin “Waah” Dean spoke on Eve’s Interscope departure.
“Eve is pretty much in the process of being released from the Interscope deal right now,” he explained in an interview. “We’re in negotiations of helping her get in control of her situation, we’re supporting her. Interscope is a great label that supported us in our success along with Def Jam and Universal. So we got Eve from Dre initially [and she wanted to go back] and they went through something. Eve was working out that way (Los Angeles), doing movies a lot and they kind of like was clicking at that time so we wanted to support Eve in whatever she wanted to do and that’s what we do. We support our artists and our family so at that time she wanted to do that. And we was there to embrace and support her and they didn’t do what they was supposed to do on some level but she’s getting released and we’re gonna be here to support her in whatever direction she want to go.” (Hip Hop Wired)
Check out a recent Eve interview below:
