Eve has continuously reinvented herself over the years. From music stardom to acting and various business ventures, the 45-year-old has always been ahead of the curve.
Her new book, titled after her 2001 Grammy-winning hit Who’s That Girl?, embodies the same boldness and openness that established her as a trailblazer in the male-dominated rap industry. Yet, as Eve shares in our interview, her journey has been far from smooth.
Her career accomplishments are dazzling: she’s a multiplatinum-selling artist, actress, and successful businesswoman whose clothing line Fetish made over $50 million during the Noughties. However, her memoir isn’t about flaunting success. It’s a raw, deeply personal narrative that intertwines the heights of her professional accomplishments with the profound struggles she’s faced in her personal life.
“I made the decision, if I was really gonna do it, I really wanted to do it, and I really wanted to be honest and open,” Eve tells The Standard.
Her memoir touches on everything from her brief career as “the laziest stripper at the club” to finding mentorship with Queen Latifah and Missy Elliott. It even includes an unexpected cameo by actor Sean Penn during her arrest for driving under the influence. At one point, she speaks candidly about the devastating effects of her ectopic pregnancy and struggles with fertility, a chapter that she says was particularly difficult to write.
Throughout these stories, Eve’s signature humour and resilience shine through, providing moments of levity amidst the heavy.
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She admits that writing the memoir was an intense process of self-reflection. “I think being in this business, people think that people that they see on TV or whatever is like, 'Oh, they're fine, or they got it together, or it can never be that hard'.
“And I do hope that people are like, 'oh, whoa, okay, she went through some s**t, and she's being honest about her s**t. Maybe I could talk about something I went through, you know, or maybe I'm ready to talk about or confront something I went through' because it's hard.”
One of the most harrowing experiences she recounts in her memoir is an incident where Janet Jackson “saved her life” after Eve’s drink was spiked at a 2007 VMAs after-party. “It made me so vigilant,” she recalls. “It was crazy. And also at an industry party, I remember feeling like, 'who would have done that?' I remember feeling so crazy.”
The ordeal left a lasting impression—Eve now never lets her drink out of her sight, even in the most familiar surroundings, and she’s passed this lesson on to her step-daughters; Lotus, 22, Jagger, 21, and Mini, 16.
Eve’s memoir arrives at a critical time for the music industry. The recent wave of allegations facing Sean “Diddy” Combs has thrown a spotlight on the toxic power dynamics that have long been tolerated. When I ask Eve if she thinks the rap industry is finally having its reckoning, she doesn’t hesitate: “Listen, everything in the dark comes to light. I truly believe that I always have, which is why I don't mess with karma. I never have. It's time.
“It's time for these men who have been using their power and all the other things... it's time for their reckoning. I'm sorry, and I just think if it blows things up, so be it, great, because these people need to be exposed.”
Eve acknowledges that she was fortunate to have a strong support system—particularly her Rough Riders crew—who “shielded” her from many of the pitfalls of industry. “Not many people wanted to mess with me,” she says with a chuckle, but her tone quickly turns serious. “I know it’s going to get darker before it gets better, but it has to happen. These men need to be exposed.”
“Listen those who are innocent, it will weed those people out, those who aren't,” she admitted. “And I'm sure there are so many people right now just shaking, just like shaking and waiting because I feel like it's gonna get a lot deeper, it's gonna go a lot darker, before it gets better.”
The discussion shifts to rap’s evolving landscape, both in the U.S. and the UK. Having lived in the UK for over a decade, Eve notes how much the UK rap scene has grown. “When I first used to come here, back in the day, when I was here for promotion, I feel like the rap scene, the hip hop scene was trying to emulate what America was,” she says. “And I think now that they've, like, found their footing and are telling their own stories, doing their own thing, and musically, that's why it's so f**king good.“What they grasped is what American hip hop used to be, the grit and the rawness and the realness, and I feel like American hip hop is not like that anymore.”
She mentions Kendrick Lamar as one of the few artists who maintain that authenticity in America today. “The only people we get that like that in America are Kendrick Lamar, that beef with him and Drake was like my favorite thing ever, not the personal shots, but it fed my hip hop soul,” she laughs. “It was great for hip hop, for excitement, the way hip hop used to be.”
Despite her admiration for the UK scene, Eve still feels a strong connection to the U.S. music industry and has been named NYU’s artist-in-residence for 2024. And while her focus remains on music, she’s also eyeing a new frontier: musical theatre. Inspired by the career of Queen Latifah, Eve is considering a leap into the West End. “I'm in a place in my life now where I would totally do it. I used to be terrified of theatre, like, terrified, but I would totally take that chance. It would be such an amazing challenge.”
While she doesn’t have her eye on any role in particular, Eve admits that the pressure of live theatre—where mistakes can’t be edited out—freaks her out a little: “You know what stresses me about theatre is like you can't just take it back. Like if you mess up a line or forget a line that it freaks me out from my core.”
When I mention her Grammy-winning ability to freestyle, she laughs: “I suppose I’d be good at improv!”
Eve is now a mother to her young son, Wilde, and stepmother to four “bonus kids”, Lotus, Jagger, Cash and Mini, from her husband Maximillion Cooper’s previous relationship. Family life has brought her a sense of grounding she didn’t expect. As for her career, she feels more at peace with her legacy than ever before. “I think I can accept it now, after writing this book. I’ve done a lot, and for the first time, I can say ‘I’m proud of it.”
Reflecting on her influence on today’s female rap stars—Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, and Ice Spice—Eve acknowledges her role in paving the way. “I never really stopped to think about it, but after finishing the book, I was like, ‘Wow, I did that. I helped make that happen’”, she reflects.
As our conversation winds down, it’s clear that Eve is in a good place. She’s a woman who has seen and survived it all, and now, with her memoir, she’s giving her fans an unfiltered look into the highs and lows of her journey. “I’m already thinking about the next one,” she says with a grin, and after speaking with her, it’s hard not to believe it.
Eve may have already done it all, but she’s not done yet.
