These days Eve is a staple on daytime television, having uber-success on her show “The Talk.” But she was a rap star before that with the New York-based rap crew and record label Ruff Ryders.
It wasn’t an easy path for Eve getting a deal with Ruff Ryders, because in 1998 she was first signed to Dr. Dre‘s label Aftermath but he eventually dropped her. She talked about that period in her life on an episode of BET’s “Ruff Ryders Chronicles” which was published to YouTube on Thursday, September 3.
Eve explained that her deal with Dre came through Mike Lynn, a close affiliate of the celebrated producer, who came to her hometown of Philadelphia. The rapper’s manager set up an audition with Lynn and after being blown away by her skills he invited her back to Los Angeles to record a demo for Dre, which got her a deal with him on his Aftermath label.
But that was around the same time that Aftermath also signed Eminem, and Eve suggested that Dre’s attention was all of a sudden diverted.
“I remember when I was working with Dre, Eminem did get signed,” she explained at the 4:39 mark. “So I would literally show up to studio sessions that I wasn’t supposed to be at where I knew Dre was gonna be and be like, ‘So when am I recording? When are you gonna put me in a song? What’s going on?’ And I think he got sick of that and then I got dropped eight months later.”
“I was devastated,” Eve continued. “I had to go back home. I had to go back to my mom’s house. I had to get back on the bus. All these people who came to my going away party are now like, ‘You’re back? That was fast.’ So it humbled me.”
While in Philadelphia, Eve received a call from her manager about needing to head to Yonkers, New York, the home of Ruff Ryders, whose members consisted of DMX, The LOX, Swizz Beatz, and Drag-On. She had an opportunity to audition for the crews’ founders at the time by battling male rappers.
“She came in with a hunger in her eyes,” Ruff Ryders co-founder Darin “Dee” Dean, recalled. “She showed no fear.”
“I was definitely scared but I was definitely, like, this is my chance,” Eve remembered about the battle, which got her a deal with the New York label.
Eve was introduced to the public on Ruff Ryders’ 1999 compilation album “Ryde or Die Vol. 1.” Her debut LP “Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady” was released after that and went No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts.
Then Eve’s sophomore release “Scorpion” came in 2001, followed by 2002’s “Eve-Olution” and 2013’s “Lip Lock.” In 2019, she dropped “Reload,” her first single in six years.
Eve has also been in a string of movies along the way, including Ice Cube’s “Barbershop” films, and she joined “The Talk” as a co-host in 2017.
She has talked many times previously about being dropped from Dre’s label, once saying that it was a secret blessing.
“I’m glad he dropped me ’cause if I had put out any music then, I wouldn’t be here,” she said on SiriusXM’s “Whoolywood Shuffle” in 2016. “I was Eve of Destruction then, as well, and it was a whole different vibe.”
