Eve Once Revealed She and Dr. Dre Parted Ways Because the Two ‘Just Couldn’t Get Along’
Before rapper Eve became a superstar, she was once signed to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label. But she and the iconic producer didn’t see eye to eye, which eventually led to Eve’s departure from the label.
How Eve was eventually signed by Dr. Dre
Eve originally grabbed Dr. Dre’s attention through a mutual acquaintance. In an interview with The Breakfast Club, the hip-hop artist once talked about impressing someone very close to Dre with her talents. This would eventually land her on the hip-hop producer’s radar.
“Mike Lynn was like his right-hand man,” she said. “These dudes who was like my homeboy managers at the time invited me over to the house and was like, ‘Yo, you should write raps for this dude. He’s got Dre’s ear.’ I was like, ‘Ok.’ And I did and he called Dre right there. I rapped for him.”
Eve’s lyrics were especially impressive to Lynn, who thought the former dancer was there for another purpose.
“He thought I was dropping off weed,” she said. “So he definitely thought like, ‘Why is she rapping? Why is the weed girl rapping?’ But he called Dre right there and I was in LA that next weekend, signed.”
Why Eve was eventually dropped from Aftermath records
Although Eve achieved every aspiring artist’s dream by getting signed to a record label, her professional relationship with Dre was lacking. The distance between Dre and Eve would eventually jeopardize her career aspirations.
“Aftermath was my first home, with Dr. Dre,” she once told MTV. “But me and Dre just couldn’t get along.”
She asserted that it was her stubbornness that led to the tensions between herself and the Beats by Dre mogul.
“I’m a strong chick and I don’t like being told what to do. I don’t care if you’re the best at what you do,” she added. “Dre just knows how to push your buttons, but I just have to say every time he pushed my buttons, he got the best out of me. So he knew what he was doin’.”
In the BET series Ruff Ryder Chronicles, Eve asserted how she originally reacted to being let go from the label.
“It wasn’t too long after Eminem was signed that I got dropped from Aftermath, and I was devastated. I had to go back home, back to my mom’s house — I had to get back on the bus… it humbled me,” she said.
Eve was glad Aftermath fired her
Eve went on to appreciate Aftermath dropping her. She would later sign a record deal with Ruff Ryders entertainment where she enjoyed the career she was searching for. But if she stayed on Aftermath, Eve didn’t believe her career would’ve blossomed the way it did.
“I don’t think my career would have lasted as long, I think when I signed to Dre, like many artists, I signed and thought this was it. This is f****** it, I’m signed. And I had an attitude. I had such an attitude — and not b****y but more just like, ‘What’s up. When am I coming out?’ I was so ready to come out, but I did not understand being developed as an artist,” she once told HipHopDX.
But being fired from Aftermath would give Eve some much-needed perspective.
“And if he hadn’t dropped me, I would not be here, I know that. I would not have come up. I would not have said to myself, you know what? I don’t want to be Eve of Destruction,” she said. “I just want to be Eve. And when he dropped me, that was when I was like, ‘I’m dropping this f****** persona. I just want to be myself.’ Dropping me, made me it. I thank him now for it.”
