Rapper Eve Thought She Had a Tumor After Experiencing Panic Attacks Triggered by Fame
Music artist Eve became one of the hip hop industry’s most successful female artists after making her debut with the Ruff Ryders. But it wasn’t long before the spotlight took its toll.
Eve demanded an MRI due to panic attacks
The journey to hip hop stardom wasn’t easy for Eve. The MC was inspired to pursue a professional career in the music industry after a chance-encounter with Ma$e. Working as a dancer at the time, she decided to focus more energy on music, which eventually caught the attention of hip hop mogul Dr. Dre. She was soon signed to his Aftermath record label. But Eve still might not have honed her skills as an all-around songwriter, and she was let go from Aftermath months later.
“I’d bragged, and had this big going-away party, and then I was back at my mom’s house riding the bus again. I was really depressed, but I needed it to happen. I was a battle rapper, but I didn’t know how to make songs,” she once told The Guardian.
This turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to Eve, as she would later sign with the record label Ruff Ryders. Heavy-hitters like the late DMX and D-Block were associated with the growing label, allowing Eve to rub shoulders with hip hop titans. By the time she signed with Ruff Ryders, she felt she was a much more complete artist with more to offer hip hop. It helped that Ruff Ryders fully accepted Eve for who she was, and focused on her talent instead of her appearance.
“There definitely weren’t a lot of females out there, and the labels were basically trying to make you get naked,” she recalled. “But with Ruff Ryders, it was always: ‘We like who you are, we’re not going to try and change you.’”
Ruff Ryders turned out to be the ideal fit for Eve. Her debut album, Let There Be Eve, was a monster success, solidifying her presence in mainstream music. But it wasn’t long before the sudden fame Eve was experiencing began to take its toll. So much so that Eve thought she had a tumor.
“It was six months of my life and me trying to get back to being myself. I had headaches and chest pain, to the point where I made a doctor give me an MRI because I thought I absolutely had a tumor. It was anxiety, that I didn’t know. I was having crazy panic attacks,” she once said on Behind the Music (via Contact Music).
How Eve overcame her breakdown
Eve’s symptoms only worsened as time went on, eventually becoming a complete breakdown.
“I cried hysterically for hours. [I was thinking], ‘How am I not happy?’ I lost my happiness. I broke down, literally. Literally broke down. When I finally did break down, I had no one to talk to because they all had an agenda. Even at that time I think I kinda pushed my mom away,” she said.
But her breakdown proved to be a turning point, as it gave her the clarity to realize something needed to change. She took a break from the music industry, and rehabbed through a two-month vacation in Florida. She took the time to purge her life of any negative influences, and was better off for it in the long run.
“I was clearing out some of my life, friends… getting away from my relationship at that time… I did a lot of soul searching, a lot of praying,” she said.
Eve would later experience another breakdown thanks to her Verzus battle with Trina
Eve would find herself having another breakdown more than a decade later, but due to entirely different circumstances. She was pitted against fellow rapper Trina in a Verzus battle, where their best hits would clash. But Eve discovered she was expecting a child not too soon before the competition, which caused her to panic.
“What’s crazy is, that’s when I found out I was pregnant,” she said in an interview with The Breakfast Club. “I literally knew I was pregnant. And, I was stressed the f*** out because my stylist didn’t bring me no clothes. That whole day, I had a meltdown right before we went on.”
Still, Eve would go on stage to compete with Trina anyway, and asserted she had a good time.
