Eve Reflects on Jay-Z Telling Her Women Rappers ‘Don’t Really Do That Well’ Commercially Ahead of Debut Album

“That was one of those things we were like, ‘Do we put that in?'” she said of her call with Hov during an interview promoting her memoir.

Eve poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the BRIT Awards 2024 in London on March 2, 2024.

CARLOS JASSO/AFP via Getty Images

Eve was intent on proving the doubters wrong with her Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady debut album back in September 1999. As told in her new Who’s That Girl? memoir, which was released on Tuesday (Sept. 17), Eve recalled a phone call from Jay-Z where he tried to temper the Ruff Ryders rapper’s expectations when it came to her debut LP’s commercial performance.

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Jay allegedly told Eve that female rappers “don’t really do that well” on the day her ’99 project arrived. However, Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady went on to top the Billboard 200 with more than 200,000 total album units sold in the first week. With assists from Swizz Beatz, DMX, Missy Elliott, The Lox, Faith Evans, Beanie Sigel and more, Let There Be Eve has sold more than two million copies to date.

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Eve appeared on The Breakfast Club on Tuesday (Sept. 17) in support of her memoir, and she provided context on the phone call with Hov, which was not intended to come off as malicious at all, but put a battery in her back.

“That was one of those things we were like, ‘Do we put that in?’ Because you know how people get,” she explained. “It was nothing bad about that. It was one of those things where it was a very amazing phone call that I needed.”

Even continued: “That was one of those I always felt like I was the underdog anyway. He wasn’t saying it out of malice or mean. 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.”

Billboard has reached out to Jay-Z for comment.

Throughout the book, Eve disclosed she had to deal with plenty of doubters when it came to executives who continually disrespected her. “The audacity that these men had,” she wrote in the book. “Now I have age and experience on my side, nobody’s coming at me like that.”

Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady spawned a pair of hits with the Swizz Beatz-produced “Gotta Man,” which reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the “What Ya’ll Want (Remix)” featuring Dru Hill’s Nokio, which was added as a bonus track and topped the Hot Rap Songs chart.

Watch her interview with The Breakfast Club below:

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