Who You Calling A Bitch?

09/17/1999 5:00 PM, LAUNCH
Billy Johnson Jr

As Babysdaddy and friends hang out on a street corner, Babysmama and child enter the scene. There's a confrontation about the child that escalates into a fight. Babysdaddy begins to beat Babysmama. But nobody's laughing.

This smack-my-bitch-up track happens to appear on a woman's album, so the scenario doesn't evoke the humor it does on the average hip-hop album. As the skit fades, it's followed with "Love Is Blind," a story Eve bases on a girlfriend's trials with domestic violence that sits comfortably next to Queen Latifah's 1993 staple hit "U.N.I.T.Y."

Eve, the 20-year-old female MC in DMX's Ruff Ryders crew, has spent the last few years proving that she could hang with the best of them. This last year she was thrust into national prominence with appearances on the Roots' "You Got Me," Blackstreet's "Girlfriend/ Boyfriend," and the Ruff Ryders' "Ryde Or Die" featuring her partners DMX, the Lox, and Drag-on.

Eve says female hip-hop pioneers Roxanne Shanté, Queen Latifah, M.C. Lyte, and Lauryn Hill inspired her no-nonsense lyrical approach. She wants to carry on their traditions and refuses to exploit her sexuality. "A lot of them girls look to that flashy, 'give me money for p-ssy' [style]," Eve says of the influence less socially responsible raps from other female MCs of late have had on young female listeners, "I'm not with that." In fact, on "What Y'all Want," the single that first signals her solo Interscope/ Ruff Ryders album Ruff Ryder's First Lady, Eve assures the fellas that she was nobody's 'ho, rapping, "What y'all n-ggas want/ Ya can't touch." Then her next single, "Gotta Man," announces her commitment to her guy.

Eve dreams of being the next Lauryn Hill, claiming to love the singer/ actress/ rapper's The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill CD so much that she listens to it daily. "She does what she wants to do when she wants to," Eve says of the Fugees frontwoman who went on to woo fans with her incredibly successful solo career. "I would love to be in her position making power moves."

Eve's a long ways away from Lauryn's status, but she isn't doing too bad. She doesn't posses Hill's velvety pipes, but proves she can hold a note, handling singing the chorus to Ruff Ryder's First Lady's "Love Is Blind" with ease. Additionally, she joins Millie Jackson, Roxanne Shanté, Mia X, Amil, and Angie Martinez in a five-part commercial series for Sprite, a major coup for female MCs.

The rapper, who once rapped with premier hip-hop producer Dr. Dre before returning to her Philly hometown to hook up with the Roots, says imposing high standards upon herself keeps her ahead of the competition. About taking the extra step to record thought-provoking songs like "Love Is Blind," which challenges the status quo, Eve says she doesn't have a choice. "In this game dominated by men, you have to make them respect you."

Just check out the climatic ending of "Love Is Blind" for an example. Let's just say Eve makes it quite clear that when she says, "You have to make them respect you," she means it.