Eve is clearing up a revelation from her newly released memoir that JAY-Z warned her not to get her hopes up following the release of her debut album.
In a recent interview about the book titled Who’s That Girl?, the Ruff Ryders rapper revealed that Hov warned her female rappers aren’t commercially successful amid the release of Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady in 1999.
However, Eve elaborated on her call with JAY-Z during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club” on Tuesday (September 17). According to Eve, Hov was attempting to motivate her, describing their discussion as an “amazing” call.
“That was one of those things that we were like, ‘Do we put this in there?’ Because you know how people get,” Eve explained. “But, it was nothing bad about that. It was one of those things where it was a very amazing phone call that I needed.”
She continued: “I always felt like I was the underdog anyway. He wasn’t saying it out of malice or [to be] mean. That wasn’t about that. It was facts, really. But I was like, eh, OK, let me see. I’ma show you. It’s all good. And it went on to be fine. Like I say in the book, we all have that person.”
During her interview with The Times, Eve recalled JAY-Z calling to congratulate her on the day she released her debut album. However, she claimed he also cautioned that female rappers “don’t really do that well.”
Despite JAY-Z’s warning, the project went on to sell two million copies and peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart shifting 213,000 copies in the first week.