On Tuesday, Eve released her new memoir “Who’s That Girl?” which detailed the humble beginnings of her career. One of the excerpts that has people buzzing is when the emcee said she received a phone call from Jay-Z.
During the call, he allegedly warned Eve about the commercial release of her debut album called “Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders’ First Lady.” The project was released in September 1999 and went onto sell more than 200,000 total album units in its first week.
However, Jay allegedly told Eve that women rappers “don’t really do that well” when “Let There Be Eve” first came out. On Tuesday, Eve sat down with The Breakfast Club to clarify this claim.
“That was one of those things we were like, ‘Do we put that in?’ Because you know how people get,” she stated during the interview. “It was nothing bad about that. It was one of those things where it was a very amazing phone call that I needed.”
Eve also added: “That was one of those I always felt like I was the underdog anyway. He wasn’t saying it out of malice or mean. It was facts, really. But I was like, eh, OK, let me see. I’ma show you. It’s all good. And it went on to be fine. Like I say in the book, we all have that person.”
To date, “Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady” has sold more than two million copies. One of the album’s hits, “Gotta Man,” reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song, “What Ya’ll Want (Remix)” featuring Dru Hill’s Nokio, topped the Hot Rap Songs chart.
It turns out that Jay-Z may have given Eve the fuel she needed to become one of the most memorable rappers in the game.