Eve Looks Back: 'That Philly Girl Had to Come Out'

Eve Jihan Jeffers — the Philadelphia-born rapper who topped the Billboard 200 with her 1999 debut — has reflected on her rise through an industry where she was often the only woman in the room.

"I was the only girl in the boardroom in major label meetings – that Philly girl had to come out," Eve told the Guardian in a new interview looking back at her career.

Born in Philadelphia in 1978, Eve released her debut album, Let There Be Eve … Ruff Ryders' First Lady, in 1999. It entered the Billboard 200 at No 1. Her follow-up, Scorpion, sold platinum and won a Grammy for the single "Let Me Blow Ya Mind".

Her career extended beyond music. She appeared in the Barbershop films and starred in her own sitcom, Eve. In 2014 she married London-based entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper; together they have a son, and she is stepmother to his four children.

One photograph from the period, taken in Miami while she recorded Scorpion, prompted a characteristically frank recollection about the making of her image at the height of her fame.

"This was taken in Miami, where I was recording Scorpion," she said. "I was obsessed with red because of its astrological affiliation with Scorpio – everything had to be that colour."

The look came at a cost. "My hair is short because I convinced my hairstylist to put both a perm relaxer and colour in, which you're not supposed to do," she recalled. "All my hair fell out, but thankfully it looked good. I felt powerful and sexy."

The interview also touches on her early years: destroying egos in school, the dealers who looked out for her, and learning from early failure — formative experiences she credits before her breakthrough with Ruff Ryders, the label collective that propelled her debut to the top of the American charts.

Eve will tour the UK and Europe in 2027, her first major run of live dates announced since the interview. For an artist whose debut made her the first lady of one of hip-hop's most dominant crews, the tour marks a return to the stage on her own terms.