The First Woman of Rap: Eve

Eve is a Philly girl born and raised, who was singing from the days that she could talk, always had music on her mind. She started out in a singing group called the Dope Girl Posse. Then they decided they should focus on rapping more and singing less, and they changed the name to EDGP. Eve's name back then was Gangsta.

But then she went solo and became Eve of Destruction. Pretty ominous stuff, right? This was all going down in the late 1990s, when Eve had gotten mixed up with the Ruff Ryders. Not that that was a bad thing. This is when she got her earliest exposure, with Eve lyrics appearing on some of the Ruff Ryder's material and on DJ Clue's stuff. She also started working around this time with the Roots and even Janet Jackson.

So by the time the first Eve album came out in 1999, called "Let There Be Eve, Ruff Ryders' First Lady," she already has quite a nice following and reputation. Heck, let's be real here. Eve Jihan Jeffers had a big following, coming out of the gate as the number one album on the charts. That was only the second time ever that a woman rapper came out as number one. Can you guess who was the first female rapper do so? You guessed right! Foxy Brown.

Getting Global With It

E-V-E did not stop there. The next Eve album would be even bigger. Called "Let There Be Eve, Scorpion," it was released in 2001 and got international fame for Eve Jihan Jeffers. One of the top Eve songs off the record was "Who's That Girl." But it would be another Eve song from the record, this one produced by Dr. Dre and guest starring Gwen Stefani, that really skyrocketed Eve Jihan Jeffers to fame. That song was "Let Me Blow Your Mind." It became a number two song on the charts and got her a Grammy. The album overall went platinum.

The problem with huge success sometimes is it can be a pain to match and surpass it. And perhaps E-V-E ran into this a little bit with her next Eve record, the 2002 "Eve-Olution. This record had a top number two Eve song in "Gangsta Lovin," but the album itself did not do as well as past Eve records had.

What did Eve of Destruction do? Fade into black? Now way. She got her own TV show, called "Eve" of call things. She's also been doing a lot of guest starring on other people's work, including new songs with Gwen again, as well as Kelly Rowland and Maroon 5, truly exploring her signing and cross-cultural talents. And she has another Eve record due out in the coming months, called "Here I Am." All sorts of huge names are supposedly on the books to work on this one, including mega producers Dr. Dre, the Neptunes, Scott Storch, and Timbaland.

From Eve to Hip Hop Music