Emmy and Grammy-winning artist Eve reflects back on her career with THR, talking about her time coming up as the only female rapper on the hip-hop label Ruff Ryders and how she pivoted her career to television, starring in the UPN sitcom 'Eve,' joining the 'The Talk' and most recently being on the cast of 'Queens.' She also reflected on how she opened up in her memoir, 'Who's That Girl,' which was released one year ago, on her journey to building trust, getting married and becoming a mother, which she calls her most important role ever. She also dished on why she's not a gentle parent and why she doesn't want her son to follow her hip-hop footprints.
00:00Eve is, I'm a lot of things. Eve is a lot of things. I'm not just one. I'm not just one thing. Eve has many, there's many faces to Eve.
00:12The era I feel like I came up in music was just one of the best. There was a lot of different types of music out. I feel like there were a lot of hits that were made back then from a lot of different people.
00:40And consistent hits from a lot of different people. Was it the best ever? Maybe. One of the best. Yes. I feel like. Yeah, it was a good time.
00:54It just made sense because there were so many dudes that Rough Riders' First Lady had to be the first album because I was the only girl. I was the first girl ever that they kind of, I always say, adopted.
01:07I'm so happy that, you know, you don't have to be the one female in the crew of a bunch of dudes being like, yeah, she's the one.
01:16I am grateful for my brothers. I'm grateful for Rough Riders and grateful I came up with them.
01:21But I'm so excited about the fact that women just do you. Just come out and be you.
01:28Yo, drop your glasses, shake your asses.
01:31You know what's nuts? Being in it, you don't have time to think about it.
01:35You know, someone, you might see yourself on the charts or you might, of course, your label is calling or whatever.
01:41But it's kind of like, yeah, good luck, congratulations, let's go.
01:45Good, you know, congratulations, we got to get on the road. Congratulations, we got to start this next album.
01:49So you don't even realize, you don't realize the impact.
01:53Things start happening in a different way.
01:55You know, you can tell your career is getting bigger.
01:58You can tell that you're a bigger name.
02:00You have a bigger impact.
02:01Of course, you can see it, but you don't have time to reflect on it.
02:05I've never had those kinds of thoughts, like, I'm going to be the first to do this and that.
02:10I kind of just lean into what I feel.
02:13And opportunities seem to come up.
02:14And I'm just like, okay, I'm just going to leap.
02:16I don't know, I guess I just like jumping off the cliff.
02:25I never just wanted to do or be one thing.
02:28Like, I never just wanted to be in the box.
02:30If anybody tries to put me in a box, I'm always trying to break out.
02:33I'm also very much the kind of person that likes to challenge myself.
02:35So if a door opens, if someone asks me, I just try it.
02:41I'm like, if it sucks, it sucks.
02:43Like, you know, but I also think it's about the longevity.
02:49It's about what you see for yourself.
02:50It was very intimidating coming into TV.
02:53Very.
02:54I was young.
02:55I was a rapper.
02:58But I think what helped me on set was that I had an executive producer credit.
03:05So I was able to go into rooms.
03:07I was able to go into the writer room.
03:09I was able to go into the creator's room and have conversations and hear conversations
03:14that I would have never been privy to if I was just the actor.
03:19That helped me a lot.
03:21And because coming in, I kind of was like imposter syndrome.
03:26You know what I mean?
03:27Like, what am I doing here?
03:28My name, I'm number one on the call sheet.
03:30Like, all these people are on my show.
03:33It's crazy.
03:34I was like 23 or something.
03:38And I do think there were definitely people, execs, that didn't like that I had a voice
03:42that I could push back at all.
03:44They hated it.
03:45Because also they were like, what do you know about TV?
03:48Like, you're a rapper.
03:49But it was the best, I would say, learning curve that I got.
03:57I do realize how lucky, how lucky I was.
04:00The talk was honestly incredible.
04:03I'm, again, so grateful and thankful that I had that experience.
04:07Sometimes I do miss it.
04:09I'm not going to lie.
04:09I do miss it.
04:10I had a good time.
04:11It did stretch me.
04:12I had to share things that I never shared before.
04:14That I'm grateful now that I did because I think it helped me to healing some things
04:19that I didn't even realize I maybe needed to heal or talk about.
04:24But yeah, I kind of do miss that kind of talk show host vibe.
04:28I could do that again.
04:34You know what's so funny?
04:36When this show comes up, people be like, so what happened?
04:38Why did you do that?
04:39And I'm like, it wasn't me.
04:40Queens was amazing.
04:41I am so very, very proud that I was a part of that show.
04:46However, at the time, I don't think I would have wanted to come back for very long.
04:52I would have come back.
04:53If it had come back for season two, I definitely would have done some.
04:58I don't think I would have wanted to come back for a lot of it because I was pregnant
05:02doing so much of it that for me, my priority was then just, I just want to be home with
05:07the baby.
05:07And being on set, shout out to being on set pregnant, y'all.
05:12Woo!
05:13I was like, this is a different situation.
05:15This is a level of emotion that I was not prepared for.
05:19I would be open to acting for the right role, but I would be probably more open to being
05:25on the other side of the camera.
05:26The phone call came, management called and was like, hey, so there's this tour.
05:36Nelly's gone out, Ja Rule's on it, Fab was on it in Europe, Fabulous was on it.
05:40And I was like, yeah, I'm down.
05:42I'm glad I said yes.
05:43It's been great.
05:44The crowds have been amazing.
05:46It's grueling.
05:46Definitely different than when I toured the first time around with the child.
05:52My mom's on the road, my brother's on the road, so it's been really nice.
05:55Can I tell you, I think based on the age, there's been different age ranges that have
06:00shown up to the show.
06:02But most of the time, people are kind of engaged.
06:05They do take their phones out at certain moments, which I kind of like, as long as it's not
06:10out the whole time, because I really did work on my visuals.
06:14Tambourine is a fun one and Blow Your Mind.
06:17Those are probably my two favorites.
06:18I do a segment to X in the show.
06:22We do a small segment to him where it just celebrates him.
06:27And yeah, it's my favorite part of the show probably because everybody's so happy and up
06:33out of their seats and he deserves that.
06:35An ex was a very special, special guy.
06:39He was absolutely crazy, but in the best way.
06:43He just made every situation hilarious, but he also had these clear moments where he would
06:52talk to you and you'd just be like, where did you get that from?
06:57I know for years he wanted to open up a church at some point and it would have made so much
07:01sense.
07:01Plus it would have been the best church ever.
07:03Yeah, I definitely miss him.
07:05I'm getting more and more open to new music, especially being on the tour.
07:08The tour has definitely helped ignite that feeling again of like performing.
07:13And I love performing.
07:14I always love performing, but thinking about, wow, could, hmm, if I did do something, who
07:19would I do it with?
07:20What would it sound like?
07:21I would say my top role right now personally is mom, mom life.
07:31Momming is the best thing in the world.
07:34I'm a fun mom, I think.
07:35I'm definitely, he makes me more silly and I love being that silly mom for him.
07:41I'm definitely not a soft mom.
07:42I am not a gentle parent, mother.
07:46He's not a gentle parent child.
07:47He's not.
07:48He pushes buttons.
07:50But, you know, I hope as he grows that I'm the mom that just allows him to be who he is.
07:58Even if that means being a rapper.
08:00Listen, this is what I will say.
08:02Whatever he wants to do, I will support him.
08:05But I will definitely be trying to push him to other areas of entertainment, life, whatever.
08:12I feel like there's so much more to that he could be doing.
08:16But again, if he wanted to, of course.
08:18He already loves music.
08:19He loves music.
08:20So I don't think we're going to get away from some sort of musical path, possibly.
08:26But we'll see.
08:29We'll see.
08:29I'm definitely not going to tell him he can't be one because then he will be one.
08:32It took me a few years before I could really be, like, trusting and being soft.
08:41Because, you know, first of all, I married later, you know, and I've been doing a lot of me for years.
08:49So, yeah, it took a minute.
08:51I didn't think about weddings.
08:52I didn't think about, I just kind of thought, also, I kind of think I took for granted the fact that, you know, people say you fall in love and you have a kid.
09:00Again, like my fertility journey, I didn't think, nobody talked to me about that.
09:05So I wasn't in any rush to be in a relationship or get married and think about having a kid.
09:10Because I was like, once I find the dude, it'll just happen.
09:13Even when he proposed, I was like, I don't want a wedding.
09:15I was like, let's just go to the registrar's office.
09:20But I'm so happy I had a wedding.
09:21It was really a beautiful celebration.
09:23So, yeah, nah, I'm happy I did it.
09:25Even now, there are times where I still have to talk to myself.
09:28We've been together 15 years, but I still am very much the, I'll just do it myself person or I'll, you know, I'll just, I'll keep it to myself for a minute.
09:36It's just how I process things as well, which is not great for a relationship sometimes.
09:42So, yeah, I still, I won't say struggle, but I still, I work on it.
09:49There was, there were a few chapters that I kind of was like, ooh.
09:52I think maybe most difficult was fertility, even though I had spoken about it, but really talking about it.
10:00The chapter about Nikki and me going to therapy, stuff like that, that was kind of, that was more just like, do I put this story in here?
10:08Is this too personal to put in here?
10:10But then I was like, you know what?
10:11We're all human.
10:12Um, those were, I mean, there's some other things, yeah, you know, but ultimately I was like, if I ever do a book, I really do want to be open, honest, and vulnerable.
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