Eve

Eve Jihan Jeffers Cooper (born November 10, 1978) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and actress from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has released four studio albums, Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady (1999), Scorpion (2001), Eve-Olution (2002) and Lip Lock (2013). Eve achieved chart success with the singles, "Let Me Blow Ya Mind", "Who's That Girl","Gangsta Lovin'" and "Tambourine". Besides solo materials, Eve earned chart-topping entries with collaborations, including "Rich Girl", "4 My People", "Who's That Girl" and "Like This". Her accolades include a Grammy Award, BET Award, MTV Video Music Award, Teen Choice Award, and Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award. Eve ranked at number 46 on VH1's list of 50 Greatest Hip Hop Artists.

As an actress, Eve is known for her role as Terri Jones in the films Barbershop, Barbershop 2: Back in Business and Barbershop: The Next Cut, as well as Shelley Williams on the UPN television sitcom Eve. She also appeared in films The Woodsman (2004), The Cookout (2004) and Whip It (2009). Since 2017, Eve has been one of the hosts of the CBS Daytime talk show, The Talk. She had a clothing line called Fetish from 2003 to 2009.

Eve was born on November 10, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Julie Wilcher, a publishing company supervisor, and Jerry Jeffers, a chemical plant supervisor. Eve lived in West Philadelphia until age 13, when her family moved to the neighborhood of Germantown. She graduated from Martin Luther King High School in Philadelphia.

At the age of 18, she worked as a stripper until rapper Mase convinced her to stop stripping. In 1999, Eve discussed stripping in an interview with Rolling Stone, saying "that was a hustle, too; there’s a song about it on my album, "Heaven Only Knows." But I don’t regret it – I was eighteen and confused, going through personal problems. I did it for about a month, and I was glad I did it. It helped me find Eve, helped me get serious. It was depressing – a lot of those girls have three or four kids. I’d sit there and be like, 'Eve, you don’t belong here, this is not your world.'" Eve's first musical interest was singing. She sang in many choirs and even formed an all-female singing group (Dope Girl Posse or EDGP) with a manager. This group covered songs from En Vogue and Color Me Badd. The group's manager suggested that they should start rapping, and Eve stuck with it. After the group split up, Eve began working on a solo career under the name "Eve of Destruction".

1998–2001: Beginnings, debut album and breakthrough

In 1998, Eve appeared on the Bulworth soundtrack as Eve of Destruction while signed to Dr. Dre's record label Aftermath Entertainment. She appeared on DJ Clue?'s song "Ruff Ryders' Anthem" (Remix) from his album The Professional and The Roots' single "You Got Me" from the band's fourth album Things Fall Apart. Eve also provided background vocals on The Roots' song "Ain't Sayin' Nothin' New" from Things Fall Apart and is credited as Eve of Destruction. Eve's first single "What Ya'll Want", featuring Nokio the N-Tity of Dru Hill was released in June 1999. The song peaked at number 29 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and at number one on the Hot Rap Songs chart. "What Ya'll Want" was included on the compilation album Ryde or Die Vol. 1 (1999).

Her debut album called Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady was released on September 14, 1999 by Ruff Ryders Entertainment and Interscope Records. It sold 213,000 copies in the first week. The album has sold over 2 million copies (according to Soundscan) and is certified Double Platinum. The album features singles such as "Gotta Man," and "Love Is Blind" with Faith Evans. "Love Is Blind" was written when she was 16 and based on her 17-year-old best friend's relationship with a 35-year-old abusive man whom she fell pregnant to. All of the songs on the album were written by Eve herself. Eve became the third female hip-hop artist to have her album peak at number one on the Billboard 200 (Lauryn Hill's debut album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, being the first to top the chart in 1998 and Foxy Brown's second album, Chyna Doll achieving the feat earlier in 1999). In November 1999, Eve was featured on Missy Elliott's single "Hot Boyz (Remix)" along with Nas, Lil Mo and Q-Tip. The remix broke the record for most weeks at number-one on the US R&B chart on the issue dated January 15, 2000; as well as spending 18 weeks at number one on the Hot Rap Singles from December 4, 1999 to March 25, 2000.

Her second studio album Scorpion, was released on March 6, 2001. The album's first single, "Who's That Girl" peaked at number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six in the United Kingdom. It was also number 97 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop. The second single, "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" with Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the US Mainstream Top 40 chart. It won a Grammy Award in 2002 for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, which was a brand new category at the time. The song was listed at number seven on the 2001 Pazz & Jop list, a survey of several hundred music critics conducted by Robert Christgau. In 2001, Eve won the BET Award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist. In November 2001, she appeared as a contestant on the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and won $32,000 for her charity.

2002–2012: Eve-Olution, collaborations and film roles

Eve's third album, Eve-Olution, was released by Ruff Ryders Entertainment on August 27, 2002 and peaked at number six on the Billboard 200. The album's first single, "Gangsta Lovin'", with Alicia Keys, became her second consecutive number-two hit on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as her third consecutive top ten hit in the United Kingdom. The second single, "Satisfaction" was moderately successful in the United States, reaching number 27 and 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Eve-Olution has sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S. and was certified gold in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 2002, Eve appeared on the remixed version of Michael Jackson's "Butterflies". She appeared in the action film XXX (2002) and all three Barbershop films (Barbershop, Barbershop 2: Back in Business and Barbershop: The Next Cut). In 2003, Eve starred as a fashion designer called Shelly Williams in the television sitcom, Eve. The show followed two sets of male and female friends attempting to navigate relationships with the opposite sex. The show aired for three seasons on UPN from September 15, 2003 to May 11, 2006. Eve guest starred as Yvette Powell in an episode of NBC's crime drama television series Third Watch. In 2004, she appeared in two films, The Woodsman and The Cookout.

In 2005, she appeared on Gwen Stefani's song "Rich Girl", which peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in March. In the United States, "Rich Girl" was certified gold, and it received a nomination for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 47th Grammy Awards. The same year, she appeared on the official remix of Amerie's number one U.S. R&B single, "1 Thing". She also appeared on Keyshia Cole's single "Never" and Teairra Mari's official remix for "No Daddy". In 2007, Eve appeared on Kelly Rowland's single "Like This", which reached the top-ten in Ireland and the United Kingdom, as well as the top-twenty in Australia and New Zealand and number 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In July 2007, Eve made a guest appearance on Maroon 5's second single "Wake Up Call" on Live 45th at Night. In late 2008, she performed "Set It On Fire", which became available on the Transporter 3 soundtrack. In April 2009, Eve and Lil Jon appeared on the song "Patron Tequila", the debut single of girl group Paradiso Girls.

She played Ophelia Franklin in the British drama film Flashbacks of a Fool (2008). In 2009, she landed a role as Rosa Sparks in the comedy-drama film Whip It, opposite Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore. It received generally positive reviews from critics but did not perform well financially, having made $16.6 million worldwide against its $15 million budget. Also in 2009, she portrayed La-La Buendia in an episode of CBS' crime drama series Numbers and appeared in two episodes of Fox's musical comedy-drama series Glee, appearing as Grace Hitchens. She portrayed Latisha in the crime thriller film 4.3.2.1. (2010) alongside Emma Roberts and Tamsin Egerton. Eve hosted the 2010 MTV Africa Music Awards.

In March 2010, Eve was featured on the official remix of Ludacris' song "My Chick Bad". In November 2010, Eve performed a rap on Australian singer Guy Sebastian's single "Who's That Girl", which reached number one on the ARIA Singles Chart and has been certified 4x Platinum. In December 2010, Eve was featured on Alicia Keys' song "Speechless", which charted at number 71 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in early 2011. In March 2011, Eve was featured on Swizz Beatz' song "Everyday (Coolin')", the first promotional single from his upcoming album Haute Living. In April 2011, she appeared on Jill Scott's song "Shame" from her album The Light of the Sun. She also appeared on Russian rapper Timati's new single "Money In Da Bank" and Wolfgang Gartner's song "Get Em". In April 2012, Eve appeared on reggae artist Shaggy's single "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun".

2013–2015: Lip Lock and label change

In 2007, Eve began working on a new album titled Lip Lock. Five of the album's songs were produced by Swizz Beatz, including the singles "Tambourine" and "Give It to You" (featuring Sean Paul). "Tambourine" debuted at number 73 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in the week of April 19, 2007. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number 38, two weeks before the song's physical release. "Tambourine" peaked at number 18 there and was her fifth consecutive top twenty solo hit in the UK. The song peaked at number 68 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007, and was placed at number 70 on MTV Asia's list of Top 100 Hits of 2007. Pharrell Williams produced the song "All Night Long", in which Eve sings rather than raps. The album ran into a series of delays due to corporate change at the record label and discontent with the lackluster success of the singles.

The album was renamed twice from "Here I Am" to "Flirt" to "Lip Lock". After Eve left Interscope Records and signed with EMI, Lip Lock was expected to be released in 2011, but it was delayed again. In 2012, Eve decided to release the album as an independent artist, and stated that there will be several buzz singles before the official single release. In an interview with Billboard, Eve stated that "one of the biggest things that I wanted to do on this album was make people realize why they fell in love with me in the first place and then take them on a journey to where I am now musically. My ear is different but I think people will recognize me. I think you'll hear that I'm in a happy place. I miss my music. My hunger is different than the first time around". On October 9, 2012, Eve released a promotional single titled "She Bad Bad" on iTunes. In November 2012, Eve released a series of weekly remixes on YouTube called EVEstlin' Tuesdays, in which she added freestyle rap verses on 2012 hit singles, such as Rihanna's "Diamonds" and Miguel's "Adorn".

The album's first official single, "Make It Out This Town", featuring Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship was released on February 23, 2013. In an interview with Rap-Up TV, Eve confirmed that the second official single would be "Eve" featuring Jamaican reggae artist Miss Kitty. The music video for the song was shot in London in February 2013 and premiered on BET on April 29, 2013. On May 14, 2013, Lip Lock was released under her own label From The Rib Music and distributed through Sony/RED. The album debuted at number 46 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album features collaborations with Juicy J, Dawn Richards, Claude Kelly, Pusha T, Chrisette Michele, Nacho, Gabe Saporta, Propaine, Missy Elliott, and Snoop Dogg. She appeared in the post-apocalyptic action comedy Bounty Killer (2013) and the horror thriller film Animal (2014). In 2014, Eve appeared in two episodes of the Oxygen reality television series Sisterhood of Hip Hop. She portrayed Amaya in Lifetime's romantic comedy television film With This Ring (2015) alongside Jill Scott and Regina Hall.

2016–present: Television projects and upcoming album

In April 2016, it was announced that Eve would join Gwen Stefani on her This Is What the Truth Feels Like Tour. The tour began on July 12, 2016, in Mansfield, Massachusetts at the Xfinity Center and continued throughout North America before concluding on October 16, 2016, in Inglewood, California at The Forum. In 2016, she hosted VH1's annual event Hip Hop Honors, which honors old school and golden age hip hop rappers and contributors for their long-term influence and importance in the history of hip hop culture. In 2017, she portrayed Cecile James in two episodes of VH1's satirical comedy-drama television series Daytime Divas. On November 14, 2017, Eve became a co-host of the CBS Daytime talk show, The Talk, replacing Aisha Tyler. On May 7, 2018, Sheryl Underwood revealed that Eve is working on new music and will be performing a song from the album on The Talk at an undisclosed date. In 2018, she appeared as herself in several television shows, such as Jane the Virgin, Empire and Happy Together.

On July 12, 2019, Eve released her first single in six years titled "Reload", featuring Jamaican dancehall artist Konshens. In November 2019, Eve and Gwen Stefani performed "Rich Girl" on NBC's competition series The Voice. The special performance celebrated Stefani's debut solo album's 15th anniversary.

Eve has graced the covers of numerous magazines, including Essence, Teen People, Allure, Rolling Stone, Paper, Philadelphia Style, Giant, Blaze, Vibe, Inked, XXL and Ebony. Eve has appeared in commercials and music videos throughout her career. She has appeared in television commercials for Clarica, Pepsi and Sprite. Her print ads include Tommy Hilfiger and MAC Cosmetics' Viva Glam campaign.

In 2003, she launched a clothing line titled Fetish, which was targeted towards female consumers of the urban demographic. She ended her clothing line in 2009.

Eve divides her time between London, Los Angeles and New York. She began dating Maximillion Cooper in 2010. The couple became engaged on December 28, 2013 and married on June 14, 2014 in Ibiza, Spain. Eve has four stepchildren.

Feud with Foxy Brown

In 1999, a dispute between Eve and New York City-based rapper Foxy Brown, began to build up in the midst of Brown's alleged affair with Eve's former mentor DMX. Additional tensions surfaced when Eve "subliminally dissed" Foxy Brown and Lil' Kim on her records "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" (2001) and "Double R What" (2002), where she criticized the two for having ghostwriters and further solidified that she, "writes [her] own songs". In December 2002, Foxy Brown responded to the disses via her unreleased record "Get Off Me", in which she compared Eve to a yorkie terrier, dubbed her a "jealous bum bitch" and criticized her Alicia Keys-assisted single "Gangsta Lovin'". That same year, Brown reportedly disapproved of Eve and former friend Charli Baltimore's "Philly's Finest", a remake of Jay-Z and Notorious B.I.G.'s "Brooklyn's Finest", in which she felt the two Philly-bred female rappers were "disrespectful". Brown also stated that when she and Lil' Kim debuted on the music scene, "everybody all of a sudden wanted a female in their crew", adding that Eve wasn't doing that for DMX and Ruff Ryders, simply because it was "just not believable".

In December 2002, during her interview with Miss Jones, Eve responded to Brown's diss record ("Get Off Me"), stating that she was glad she could be "an inspiration" for Brown's ghostwriter. Eve also revealed that she had known Brown since 1997 and dubbed her a "wankster" and a "miserable jealous bitch". Eve lastly added, "Ain't my fault [Foxy] been out since '96 & her bank account look the same. Do you ma. You look weak. Do you." In April 2003, during her interview with Wendy Williams, Foxy Brown revealed that she hated Eve and cited her as the prime reason why she broke up with Kurupt because Eve "snitched" about the alleged affair between her and DMX. Brown later made derogatory comments about Eve throughout the interview, calling the rapper a "poorly dressed nappy headed blond chick". Brown also added that she was "sick and tired" of Eve subliminally dissing her and Lil' Kim on records because she and Kim "changed the game of hip-hop for female rappers". In September 2003, Eve dissed Brown on a record titled "We're Back" from former mentor DMX's album, Grand Champ.

In November 2017, on the show The Talk (which Eve co-hosts) when discussing if someone ruined a moment for them; Eve brought up Foxy Brown (although not by name) during the discussion. Eve describes an incident where Brown planned to sabotage her show at a club in Chicago during her time performing club rounds. The promoter calls Eve to tell her "one of her friends called and wants tickets to [her] show." It turned out to be Foxy Brown, with whom Eve was not friends. Despite Eve's pleas to the promoter to not give Brown a ticket (she admitted she knew something was going to happen if he did it), the promoter told Eve that he has to give Brown a ticket "because she's bigger than you and I don't want to mess up this relationship." When Eve got ready for the show she believed Brown would not show up to her performance, but Brown did show up to the performance. During her performance, Brown's appearance in the balcony behind Eve prompted the crowd to scream Brown's name rather than Eve's. Eve admitted this made her want to cry, but she said "[But] the rapper in me and the Philly in me was like 'Oh you want to battle me?' You know, like on stage -- and she didn't want to battle me at all; she just wanted to mess up my show." This discussion prompted her fellow co-hosts Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Sara Gilbert and Sheryl Underwood as well as top talker Sean Valentine to find out who Eve was talking about. Eve said at the end of her discussion that she's "much happier in [her] life than [Brown] is right now."

Studio albums

• Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady (1999)
• Scorpion (2001)
• Eve-Olution (2002)
• Lip Lock (2013)