FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady
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FOR this Vinyl Corner…
I wanted to look at a seminal Rap album. From one of the legends of Hip-Hop, Eve’s Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady came out on 14th September, 1999. It is an album I would recommend people get on vinyl. As a contributor and one of the focal points of the recent BBC series, First Ladies of Hip-Hop, we got to hear from one of the pioneers and icons of Hip-Hop. Eve recently selected her choice of the five female MCs who changed the game. I would definitely include Eve as one of the most influential Hip-Hop artists ever. With Eve writing the songs on the album and putting her personal touch and voice on it, this landmark sold over two million copies. it is a classic that has inspired so many other Hip-Hop and Rap artists. Produced by Swizz Beatz, P.K., DJ Shok and Jay ‘Icepick’ Jackson, it is one of the most important debuts ever I feel.
There was a lot of attention around Eve in 1999. Her astonishing debut album reached number one on the Billboard 200, making her the third female rapper to accomplish this feat. Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Prior to coming to some reviews of Eve’s debut, I want to look at an interview from Rolling Stone. Eve was chatting with them shortly after the release of Let There Be Eve... Ruff Ryders' First Lady. That title seems like a biblical statement. Eve was the first woman (according to the Bible). That connection for the first woman created to Eve, as a namesake, being the first woman of Hip-Hop. Or at least leading the new generation:
“OK, let’s play hip-hop “Love Connection.” Q-Tip vs. Snoop Dogg?
Oh, that’s hard. Q-Tip’s cute, but I’m always going to steer toward the thug – I need the excitement. And I like dogs. I can’t help it!
Barry White vs. Eminem?
Eminem. I would really like to experience his world. Plus, I’ve never been with a white boy, and I would like to one day. But it would have to be a crazy white boy — and he’s crazy! With our blond hair, we’re like twins.
Oh, God — do you have to ask? Rappers talk about drug dealing before they made it and it’s not a big thing, but me stripping is? Come on. 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.”
What did you learn about men?
[Softly] That they can be totally disgusting toward women.
What are the struggles in the hip-hop game right now?
Whoo! To be accepted as a female as an MC. That’s always going to be it. It’s like, “Eve can rhyme, but look at her ass.”
Before you were a Ruff Ryder, you were signed to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label. What happened?
Aftermath president Michael Lynn came to Philly to meet my managers. They were like, “Do you want to audition for this guy?” So I walk in, and he thought I was the weed girl.
The weed girl?
He thought he was buying weed from me! Anyway, I start rapping and he’s like, “Why is the weed girl rapping?” I thought I was never going to see that guy again. But then he signed me, but it just wasn’t the right situation. I know people are saying, “Dre, why did you let her go?” But there’s no love lost. It was a learning experience.
How long are you gonna be in the rap game?
As long as people still want to hear me. But I want to break into so many other things: movies, management, production. Acting I know I could do – ’cause I’m acting like I like you right now!
Oh, shit!
I’m just playing”.
I am going to come to some reviews. A hugely acclaimed album when it arrived in 1999, this was a statement of conviction and honesty. Eve at her best when the songs were personal and truer to her experiences. Here is what Pitchfork had to say when they reviewed Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady:
“Back in 1997, Eve’s promising career was almost derailed by a snarky, pill-popping, bleach-blond white boy from Detroit. She’d started messing around with music as a teen, but only began pursuing it in good faith after a chance encounter with Mase at the Bronx strip club where she briefly sojourned. “That night, he drove me around and we rapped all night until the sun came up,” she recalled recently. “And I never went back in the club.” After another fortuitous meeting, this one with an executive at Dr. Dre’s Aftermath records, Eve delivered an audition, flew to Los Angeles, and was signed pretty much on the spot. Eight months into the collaboration, Dre met Eminem, and Eve was sent packing to Philly.
But as with all the best origin stories, that failure gave Eve Jihan Jeffers resolve. An opportunity presented itself in the form of Ruff Ryders, a New York crew which, in the late ’90s, had made the transition from management company to label. Eve stood out with her platinum-blonde baldie and a pair of selectively-deployed paw prints on her chest. Her rap skills would soon become just as striking. “They made me write and recite, write and recite,” she said. “It was like boot camp. You had to prove yourself to them, and that’s what made me a better MC.”
In 1998, the same year Ruff Ryders’ principal rapper DMX released two platinum-selling albums, Eve got to work. By that point, the only credit to her name was a loosie on the Bulworth soundtrack, released as Eve of Destruction. But in 1999, she appeared (although uncredited) alongside Erykah Badu on the Roots’ breakout “You Got Me” and joined Blackstreet, Janet Jackson, and Ja Rule on the pastel “Girlfriend/Boyfriend.” She employed a different style on all of them: sly, seductive incense-rap here, no-nonsense wit there. Eve’s first proper release, the vaguely salsa-inspired “What Ya Want,” featuring Nokio of Dru Hill, was built around a rudimentary Latin preset on an E-MU synth, but it soon cracked the Top 40.
That fall, amid Y2K mania and vague collective fears about an uncertain future, Eve officially claimed her spot as Ruff Ryders’ self-described “pitbull in a skirt” and released Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady. It became the third rap album by a woman to crest the Billboard 200. She was 21, one of a handful of women who served in the token but compulsory role as the “first lady” of any given ascendant rap crew. Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, Mia X, and Rah Digga, among others who had achieved name recognition within the genre, all had their own styles. And of course there was Lauryn Hill, who had managed to escape the tyranny of Wyclef and the Fugees to release an album that set records still standing today.
Like Eve, many of these women were more charismatic and skilled than their male counterparts, but often had less creative control of their own projects. You can hear that tension all over Let There Be Eve; across its 14 songs and four skits, the domineering energy of Ruff Ryders is palpable and weaselly. Eve isn’t even the first voice you hear on her own debut album, or the second, or third. The intro track, “First Lady,” is the equivalent of a red carpet being unfurled, a call-and-response chant delivered by Swizz Beatz and an anonymous male chorus: “When I say E-VAY, y’all say E/When I say RU-UFF, y’all say RYDERS.” The next track, the steel-tipped “Let’s Talk About,” opens with ad-libs from Ruff Ryders’ associate Drag-On. When Eve finally appears, a couple seconds in, it feels like the relief of a sunbeam.
Still, it’s very much a family affair throughout. Even when it feels like her ideas are retrofitted to preexisting, Swizz-produced morsels—on the frosty posse cut “Scenario 2000,” featuring DMX, Drag-On, and the Lox, for example, Swizz samples himself—Eve establishes breathing room for herself. One track, the chest-thumping skit “My Bitches,” is a direct response to DMX’s “My Niggas,” but is awesomely appropriated to act like something of a thesis statement for the entire project: “My bitches, my bitches that take care of they kids/My bitches, my bitches that you don’t respect/My bitches, my bitches that you always neglect/Y’all niggas ain’t real, y’all niggas ain’t shit.” Eve’s lyrics often appear simple in transcription, but they land with the heart and urgency Philly rap is celebrated for.
Despite the Ruff Ryders’ attempts at co-opting Let There Be Eve, it winds up being an album of self-determination, where she effortlessly bests the guys at what they think is their own game. There is little experimentation on the album—that would come later, with her blockbuster Scorpion album—but Eve bobs and weaves with dexterity, skillfully overcoming Swizz Beatz’s anemic production. At the time, collaborators and critics often attributed Eve’s success to her ability to hang with the guys without sacrificing her conventional femininity; the critic Touré, in a Rolling Stone review of the album, described her as “a thug with curves.” Her maneuvering required a kind of gender code-switching in which she had to be the “pitbull in a skirt,” years before the concept of the Cool Girl would become solidified in pop culture. It was an oppressive and offensive framework, mirrored across genres of all kinds, and Eve challenged it in part by using hardcore, “masculine” rap to sculpt her own power”.
I will end with a review from AllMusic. They celebrated and spotlighted a rapper who was very much on the cusp of something great. Putting out such a varied and strong debut, there were a lot of eyes on her. Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady still sounds so vital and stunning today:
“The full title of Eve's full-length debut is Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady for a reason. The Philadelphia rapper sets out to prove she's earned her place in the Ruff Ryders crew, matching rhymes, raunch, and rounds with the hardest hardass. Minimal beats laced with synthesized strings and keyboards back traditional hip-hop brag fests like "Let's Talk About." Eve shows up guests Drag-on, DMX, and others with boasts of sexual prowess, withering insults to inadequately endowed brothers, and violent sister-centered anthems like "My Bitches." A few short skits offer snapshots of Eve's beloved hometown. The irresistible party anthem "We on That Shit!," reminiscent of Coolio's "Fantastic Voyage," chronicles a night of clubbing and rounds out the street picture. "Ain't Got No Dough," a fabulous collaboration with Missy Elliott, is a fiery bridge between street-centered raps and the more interesting tracks. Purring and pissed, it's an edgier alternative to TLC's hit "No Scrubs." Eve's conviction and passion make her noticeable no matter what the subject, but she truly stands out when the stories become personal, examining the cost of the hard life she champions in other songs. "Love Is Blind" is a painful look at domestic violence. Self-respect and positivity are the moral of "Heaven Only Knows." Both tracks are backed by beautiful arrangements with acoustic guitar and lush vocals. Eve maintains her hardcore image in these tracks, but with a subtle vulnerability that promise lots of interesting things to come from this Philly prodigy”.
Perfect on vinyl (or streaming), I think that it should be reissued and come back in stock. Scorpion is readily available, but Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady is a little less available. It is truly a masterpiece. If you have not heard it before, spend a little time experiencing…
A Hip-Hop debut like no other.