Eve says growing up in Philadelphia gave her the confidence to fight for her ideas when she found herself as the only woman in the room during major record label meetings.
In a new interview with The Guardian, the 47-year-old rapper reflected on the making of her 2001 album Scorpion and recalled having to push executives to trust her vision, particularly when it came to her Grammy-winning collaboration with Gwen Stefani, "Let Me Blow Ya Mind."
Eve said her wide-ranging musical taste made her confident that bringing together a rapper and the No Doubt frontwoman could work, even if executives weren't immediately convinced.
"I was the only girl in the boardroom in those major label meetings, and that Philly girl often had to come out," said Eve, now 47. "They were initially resistant because I was a rapper and she was a rock star, but I said: 'Guys, this will work. Trust me.'"
The “Gangsta Lovin’” artist ultimately got her way, but she said getting her ideas taken seriously was a recurring challenge.
"Even though I won that particular fight, the response to a lot of my suggestions was often: 'Oh, that's cute. We're not doing that,'" she recalled.
"I felt I couldn't be my full, excited self because there were so many miserable motherfuckers around me in those boardrooms," she added. "The atmosphere made me feel like I had to suppress myself and stay small."
Eve said that years later, a former A&R executive reached out to apologize for not giving more consideration to her ideas.
"I really wish we listened to you a little bit more — you had some good ideas," she recalled him telling her. She said it was “validating.”
Eve credited some of her persistence to growing up in Philadelphia, describing it as an "underdog city" that taught her to work hard and refuse to take no for an answer.
Before finding success, Eve signed with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment under the name Eve of Destruction but was dropped eight months later. After spending a month depressed at her mother's home, she received a call from Jimmy Iovine about meeting Ruff Ryders.
Eve described Ruff Ryders as her "safe place" after dealing with producers who didn't always take her seriously as a female rapper. The partnership paid off when her 1999 debut, Let There Be Eve... Ruff Ryders' First Lady, entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1.
Two years later, Scorpion went platinum, while "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" with Stefani earned Eve a Grammy.
