In a brief excerpt from her new memoir, Eve shared that Jay-Z had cautioned her about the challenges she’d face early in her career. However, the story was misconstrued as Jay-Z saying Eve wouldn’t succeed as a female rapper.
While promoting her book Who’s That Girl?, Eve appeared on Hot 97 this week, where host Ebro Darden questioned her about the misinterpretation. Around the six-minute mark of the interview, Ebro addressed how the media “framed” the story, though Eve clarified that she saw Jay-Z’s words as more of a “challenge” than a critique.
According to COMPLEX Eve shared that the situation with Hov was taken out of context.
“Obviously, it’s Jay. I knew somebody was going to try that,” she told Ebro. “I didn’t think in that moment that that man was trying to discourage me.”
Instead, Hov was trying to prepare her for the “challenges” that the Philadelphia native would face as a rising female rapper at the time.
She continued, “For me, I took it as, ‘Okay, I hear you, but also, let me see.’”
Eve added that she “got a phone call” after the story began circulating, but called Jay “the biggest supporter of who he supports.”
“It was nothing like that and it’s such a small piece of a chapter,” she concluded.
In the specific chapter, Eve recounted Jay-Z giving her a congratulatory call on the release of her debut album, Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady.
It was during the call that he warned Eve to not have heightened expectations due to female rappers not selling as much as their male counterparts.
Eve also clarified the part of her book on The Breakfast Club, saying that Hov didn’t tell her that “out of malice or [to be] mean.”
