Eve Says It Was an 'Obstacle' to Get Support From Music Execs on "Let Me Blow Ya Mind": 'Thankfully I Won That Battle'

Rapper and now author Eve needed to hustle her way through male music executives to reach the top.

Ahead of the Sept. 17 release of her debut memoir, Who's That Girl?, the 45-year-old exclusively told Page Six about the "uphill fight" she underwent as a rising artist.

"Back then, you had to physically go out and build your audience and just going into these rooms, which were very male-dominated, completely male-dominated," she told the outlet.

Eve added that there "weren’t as many female voices," which continued the tradition of an "old-school way of going out and having to build your audience one by one, show by show."

While Eve was on the Ruff Ryders roster in the early 2000s, one of her most notable songs that didn't get initial support was the Gwen Stefani-assisted "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" in 2001.

Eve, who went through the "very frustrating" experience of getting "a lot of pushback," said that she "faced an obstacle" of wanting the No Doubt frontwoman on "Let Me Blow Ya Mind."

"I had a few people say, 'That’s never gonna work. People are not going to believe this.’' And I was just like, 'Believe what? We are two artists,'" Eve told Page Six.

"I was a fan of No Doubt, and we were also labelmates. So I was like, ‘Why can’t this work?’ So I got pushback on that, and thankfully I won that battle."

But after getting "condescending" responses from A&R and music execs, Eve questioned whether she should doubt herself.

"Sometimes you start feeling crazy when you’re pitching in these rooms and people are pushing back at you, and you’re like, 'Do I suck? I didn’t think I sucked this much,'" she shared.

While her former A&Rs would apologize years later, the validation came when "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" won a Grammy Award in 2002 for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The win also made Eve and Stefani the first recipients, with the category being introduced that year.

"I won a Grammy [for] 'Let Me Blow Ya Mind,' and 'Tambourine' is still thankfully just one of those songs that [is] still being played. I never take that for granted. It’s also one of those 'fuck you' moments to those people who were like, 'Yeah, this is never going to work.' I love that."

With the modern rap landscape having more female artists, Eve shared that while she was "one female in a crew of dudes," that because of online support and not needing major label backing, women have it "much easier" today.

"One thing I’m really happy about is how many women you see on the landscape as opposed to when I was out. I am happy about that because I always felt like there was definitely not enough balance voice-wise between men and women."

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