In the latest issue of Music Week, hip-hop legend Eve talks all about her striking new memoir, Who’s That Girl?
Out now via Hanover Square Press, the book sees the star reflect on breaking into the industry, the fall out of being dropped by Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label early on in her career and, of course, transforming the sound of hip-hop forever with Ruff Ryders. Hers is a story riddled with incredible highs (working with DMX, Prince and Gwen Stefani) and desperate lows (a struggle with alcohol addiction that resulted in a DUI charge in 2007 and a court-ordered ankle bracelet, something she credits with “saving” her life).
“I wrote the autobiography now because the 25th anniversary of my first album has just gone and it felt like a good opportunity to shed some things that I’m truly over, but also to dive in a bit deeper,” Eve told us about her trip down memory lane. “I’m talking about things I never spoke about before… It was a lot! When I read it for the Audible version, I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve gone through some really dark stuff,’ but I always believed in myself so much. I’m really proud.”
Here, in an unread extract of our Aftershow interview, you can read more about her journey, from breaking through the glass ceilings imposed on her as a female rapper in the late '90s to recruiting notorious Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight to help her with her label contract negotiations when they weren’t going her way…
Part of your book deals with some really difficult things you’ve been through, particularly your struggles with mental health and alcohol when you were touring 24/7. How hard was it for you to revisit some of that?
“It's crazy, because during the first part of the writing process, I was definitely thought I had already dealt with it all. So I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, this happened and that happened.’ My co-writer [Kathy Landoli] was like, ‘I don't want to take you back to the trauma, but you have to go a bit deeper – if people are reading this or listening, they need to feel that emotion.’ And I have to say, a lot of the revelations that happen in this book happened as we were writing it. I was definitely, like, ‘Wow, I didn't know I still felt like that about certain things.’”
You talk a lot about the double standards women go through in the music industry. One part that really sticks out is when you talk about being in a rap cypher in the early days and feeling like you weren’t just representing yourself, you also had “a whole gender on your back”. Was that pressure real at the time, or were you more putting that on yourself?
“It could have been me putting it on myself, especially back then in the cyphers. I think I felt like that because anytime I showed up to one, there were no other girls. And when girls saw me in the cypher, they’d come around and be like, ‘Yes, that's right!’ I had hype women. But before then, I was the one girl in the cypher all the time. So I think it probably was a pressure that I took on, in a way, because I was like, ‘Why aren't there more girls rapping?’ But it was also, ‘Okay, well, if I gotta show up I'm gonna represent.’ When I got in the industry, I felt like I was the voice of many girls, specifically the voice of girls where I came from. That's how I started to look at myself, like, ‘Yeah, I'm representing the Philly girls now.”
They can call you whatever names they want, but if you truly believe in something for yourself as an artist, it's your right to fight for that
Eve
Throughout the book you talk about how music executives only cared about the bars coming out of your mouth and not your actual thoughts and feelings. So much so that at one point you drafted in Suge Knight to help with your contract renegotiations…
“Not many people knew that I got Suge Knight to help me [with executives]… It was insane. I was very frustrated. I felt very back against the wall in a way which is why I went so extreme. It just was one of those things that kind of happened, like, ‘Well, ask a gangsta [to help]…’”
And that’s at a time after all the documentaries and books had long since been written about his unique approach to things…
“Yeah, but I’m very much the person that's like Bart Simpson with the fire – like ‘Ow, quit it!’ I have to touch it to see if it's hot. And I'm also just a curious person. That was just one of those decisions: young, dumb, crazy! It was a, ‘What the hell were you thinking?’ decision. I've said this, and will continue to say it, I was very lucky that Ruff Ryders was the crew I came from. Suge truly understood the conversation I eventually had to have with him when I said, ‘Listen, my brothers are saying, ‘We don't think you should be hanging out with him.’ And Suge was totally like, ‘I get it, if you were my little sister, I would totally do the same thing. All good.’ And that was it. Ruff Ryders came from the streets, and so did Suge. There is a street code, and he respects it. Ultimately, that's all it was. He was like, ‘All good, I get it. You need to listen to them.’ So, yeah!”
In one part of the book you say you want to be the “big sister for other women in the industry” that you never had yourself. What would be your advice to the next generation in terms of making their voice heard to executives in the music business?
“Oh, my God, I haven't been in those rooms in a long time, but I do hope things have changed. We see more females in the landscape, maybe that means certain things have. That being said, you just have to snatch and demand your respect. And they can call you whatever names they want to call you. They can tell you whatever, that you're emotional, or you’re a bitch, or whatever it is. But if you truly believe in something for yourself as an artist, it's your right to fight for that. And just do it. Because you'll never regret fighting for yourself.”
Who’s That Girl? is out now via Hanover Square Press
Photo: John Russo
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