From strip club rapper to Grammy winner: Eve's untold story of hustle
Grammy Award-winning American rapper and actress Eve Jihan Jeffers.
What you need to know:
- Eve's journey from a teenage marijuana dealer and reluctant stripper to Grammy-winning rapper showcases her relentless pursuit of musical success against her mother's wishes.
- After being dropped from Dr Dre's Aftermath label, she found her true home with Ruff Ryders, where she became their "First Lady" and released multiple platinum albums.
- Her collaboration with Gwen Stefani on "Let Me Blow Your Mind" earned her a Grammy Award, cementing her place in hip-hop history.
By the time Eve Jihan Jeffers was 12, she was already a proficient poet who had accumulated several elementary accolades and moulded a budding rap duo known as DGP, with her best friend Yvette. They performed in block parties and school talent shows at the Martin Luther King High in West Philadelphia, where she reluctantly proceeded with her studies.
She craved to attend Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts that was integral in the formation of the illustrious R&B group Boyz II Men, but her mother insisted that music wasn't the primal essence of her academic pursuits.
In retaliation, education became an afterthought and Eve's rebellious persona averted to running battles with the police, who predominantly patrolled Martin Luther King High and often apprehended her for bunking class. She continued writing and rhyming and began smoking and selling marijuana.
At the age of 15, she embarked on wielding her proceeds from marijuana sales, to pay for studio sessions that involved writing and recording songs over beats that were contrived by a local producer known as Marv. He abetted her by harnessing, engineering and compiling her constellation of songs into a demonstration tape (demo-tape) and she began marketing copies to local music industry professionals.
In her memoir, Who’s That Girl? Eve articulately chronicles how she instilled a self-imposed ultimatum to secure a recording contract before the age of 17, or attended New York University and study Special Effects Makeup.
To earn extra money, she accompanied a crew of strippers who drove twice a week in a two-hour road trip through I-95 highway, which connected her home town Philadelphia to New York City, to perform at the Golden Lady strip club in the Bronx. She ended up being known as the laziest stripper in the club, as she detested the stripper pole and preferred rapping for clients instead of dancing.
One night, Bad Boy Records rapper Ma$e visited the strip club and instead of requesting Eve for a lap dance, he ended up encouraging her to quit stripping and continue pursuing her artistic ambitions. His motivation led Eve to relentlessly approach industry executives and persuade them to listen to her demo-tape.
As her positivity began dwindling, she received a phone call from former Motown General Manager Marc Byers, who ratified the credence of her demo-tape and compelled her to instinctively perform for Mike Lynn. Mike was a confidant of hip-hop's most revered producer, Dr Dre, and had initially instructed Byers that he didn't desire to listen to any new artists.
He was, therefore, convinced by Byers that Eve was a street marijuana dealer, who was bringing him his weed supply. When Eve walked into his office, Byers started playing a beat and she instantly began rapping, leaving Mike baffled.
Mike's antagonism was subdued by Eve's brilliance and when she completed her cypher, he immediately phoned Dr Dre and by the end of the week, Eve was flown to Los Angeles, California. She met Dre at his mansion and was contracted to his label, Aftermath Entertainment, but spent the next eight months watching Dre prioritise the completion of his album, Chronic 2001 and focus on his newly signed artist, Eminem.
Dre consequently thwarted her ambitions by sending his assistant to inform Eve that she was being expelled from Aftermath. She flew back to Philadelphia and her despondency and despair grew to depression. Fortuitously, Marc Byers signed her as a client and travelled with her to Yonkers in New York City.
Interscope Records was an established Los Angeles based mainstream record label and the parent company to Dr Dre’s Aftermath. Interscope's executive Jimmy Iovine, had signed another label from Yonkers New York called Ruff Ryders to a distribution deal and convinced Marc to introduced Eve to the Ruff Ryders crew. Ruff Ryders consisted of a substantial roaster of workaholic rappers that included DMX, Drag-On and a group called The LOX that embodied Jada Kiss, Styles P and Sheek Louch. The label was the brain child of two brothers and motorbike enthusiasts, Waah (Joaquin Dean) and Dee (Darrin Dean).
When Eve walked into their Power House Studios and showcased her vivacious rapping skills to the entire Ruff Ryders contingent, Waah christened her with the nickname 'Pitbull in a Skirt' and immediately signed her to a recording contract.
She briskly earned the approval of Waah and Dee’s nephew Swizz Beatz, who was speedily becoming the industry's grandest producer and he recorded a freshly worded verse by Eve into the remix of DMX's famous 'Ruff Ryders Anthem.' She subsequently contributed her vocals to her label's inaugural compilation album, Ryde or Die Vol 1, with her first mega hit 'What Y’all Want' peaking at number one on Billboard’s Rap singles charts.
Eve was suddenly the beneficiary of numerous distinguished requests by music personalities to collaborate in their songs and fashion spreads in magazines. She featured in Jay-Z’s famous song 'Jigga' and released another solo hit 'Do that,' as XXL Magazine concurrently covered her history as a stripper.
Eve's debut solo album Let There Be Eve... Ruff Ryders’ First Lady, was released on September 14, 1999 and sold over 200,000 copies the first week, promptly topping the Billboard top 200 album charts. She became the third female rapper, after Lauryn Hill and Foxy Brown, to ever achieve that feat, as her hit singles 'Gotta Man' and 'Love Is Blind' simultaneously dominated the MTV playlist for several weeks.
The album was certified triple-platinum after selling over three million copies and created enough equity for her to collaborate with more opulent artists. Jimmy suggested a reunion between Eve and Dr Dre, who she now considered her arch nemesis, for terminating her Aftermath contract.
Their studio sessions swiftly turned into livid arguments and in the midst of their tumultuous reconciliation, they created a classic hit, 'Let Me Blow Your Mind,' with Gwen Stefani singing the chorus. Scorpion was expeditiously awarded platinum status after it sold over one million copies. It contained chart topping hits 'That’s What It Is,' 'You Had Me, You Lost Me,' and Eve's most famous song, 'Who’s That Girl?'
Scorpion sped to the top five of the Billboard 200 album charts and earned two Grammy nominations. At the 44th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on February 27, 2002, Eve became the recipient of an esteemed Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, alongside Gwen Stefani.
Jeff Anthony is a novelist, a Big Brother Africa 2 Kenyan representative and founder of Jeff's Fitness Centre @jeffbigbrother
