Eve‘s new album is getting ready to drop. As she puts the finishing touches on the LP, she opened up about singing, lyrics and her D.U.I.
“I’m singing the whole song,” she recently told MTV of the Pharrell produced track where Eve primarily sings. “I just didn’t want to sing! Because I’ve sung hooks before, but to sing a whole song, that’s something I actually have to do on stage. I think [about it] in that way. Like, what if I mess up? What if there’s a frog in my throat? I made it a point, though, to sing like I might just regularly sing, where anybody can sing it. At a tone where I’m not trying to be Alicia Keys. I’m not trying to blow at all, because I’m not that kind of singer. But it’s nerve-racking. I’m used to going in the booth and doing what I have to do and then I’m out. With singing, it becomes a chore. But it’s one of my favorite songs on the album now…I actually got to sneak back in and put, like, eight bars of rap in [the song].”
When she does rap, she now takes it easy on the profanity.
“I get it. I get it completely. I barely say bitch. I do say it. I usually don’t say ho. The N-word, more than anything, holds a negative connotation. It’s a word I grew up with and that’s a word that’s never threatened me and I’ve never used it in a threatening manner. But I also get it. And I feel like if that’s a word that’s going to be removed, it has to be a movement and we all need to do it at the same time.”
“It’s not just hip-hop, and that’s the thing that makes me mad. Those words have been a part of everyone’s vocabulary at some point in everyone’s life. Black, white, whatever. Hip-hop, pop, rock. So it makes me mad that the fingers are being pointed at hip-hop for those certain words. There are movies that come out every year where a woman is being smacked up and beat down by a man. Let’s talk about domestic violence. No men will stand up [for that]. They want to say, ‘I want to take these certain words out of a song.’ But a lot of men that are hitting women won’t stand up and say, ‘You know what? I’m gonna stop hitting my women today.’ That’s what we need to be fighting. Stuff like that. There are a lot of different issues.”
On her DUI.:
“Things happen and this is the nature of the business I’m in…I just feel blessed and happy that all the good things completely outweigh anything negative in my life.”
The album, which features Swizz Beatz, Mary J. Blige, T.I., Sean Paul, Timbaland and Robin Thicke,is almost ready for a release. DX will keep you posted.