<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Eve&amp;#x27;s back! At the turn of the millennium, the former Ruff Ryders tough-chick made waves with hot radio mega hits with the likes of Alicia Keys (&amp;quot;Gangsta Lovin&amp;#x27;,&amp;quot; anyone?) and Gwen Stefani (see: &amp;quot;Rich Girl&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Let Me Blow Ya Mind&amp;quot;), as well as with powerful message songs like &amp;quot;Love Is Blind,&amp;quot; which supported women who were victims of domestic violence. And today, after some label reshuffling and a few false starts, Eve is back with the release of Lip Lock, her first album since 2002&amp;#x27;s Eve-Olution. But this time around, Eve&amp;#x27;s in the driver&amp;#x27;s seat of her career, and she&amp;#x27;s got a fun-and-flirty new outlook that enables her creativity like never before. The effortlessly chic female rap pioneer chats with us about being her own boss, her ever-evolving style influences, and, of course, her pop-culture obsessions. But first, check out the videos for Eve&amp;#x27;s new singles, &amp;quot;Eve&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Make It Out This Town&amp;quot; now! Hey, Eve! I love this album. Could you tell us what Lip Lock is about, and why you chose that as the title of your new record? Eve: Hey! Thank you! So Lip Lock is a play on words. It sounds flirty and fun. Also, my lips are one of my favorite features. Also, it&amp;#x27;s like, literally locking the game down with my words because I&amp;#x27;m a lyricist. I thought it made sense for this album. And it can mean kisses too! Eve: Yeah! Smooches! (laughs) What&amp;#x27;s the overall message that you feel women can get from listening to Lip Lock? Eve: One thing for me is that I had so much fun making this album, and I&amp;#x27;m hoping people can feel that. There&amp;#x27;s definitely a different kind of confidence this time around. I&amp;#x27;m always all about trying to empower girls and women, so I hope that translates and people can be inspired by my confidence on this record. Honestly, it&amp;#x27;s a kind of confidence I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;ve had before. I definitely feel that. The songs are super fun and creative in an exciting new way for you. What was it like to write this album? Eve: It was definitely more intimate. Coming from Ruff Ryders, there would be like 30 guys in the studio at once, and then me, trying to do my own thing. This time around, it was just me, maybe a few friends, and a producer and engineer&amp;amp;#8212;much more laid-back. Less people in the studio so that I could focus! You&amp;#x27;re independent now, and Lip Lock is the first release from your own label, From the Rib Music. Was it easier for you to solidify your artistic direction as an independent artist? Eve: I didn&amp;#x27;t have anyone to ask, &amp;quot;Oh, do you think we should be working with these people?&amp;quot; Or, &amp;quot;Should we take the project in this direction?&amp;quot; I got to just pick producers that I actually worked with and sit down to have a meeting, just to make sure we were all on the same page. That was really important to me this time around. That&amp;#x27;s awesome. Glamour loves women who take charge in their lives. What&amp;#x27;s it like being your own boss? Eve: It&amp;#x27;s great! Of course, there&amp;#x27;s a lot more work. And now, since I&amp;#x27;m a label owner, all the responsibility falls on me. But it feels so good because I was able to make exactly what I wanted and release it under my own imprint. It&amp;#x27;s the first time I&amp;#x27;ve had this kind of creative freedom. While we&amp;#x27;re on the topic of being a badass, check out the clip for Lip Lock&amp;#x27;s first single, &amp;quot;She Bad Bad.&amp;quot; Are there other artists you&amp;#x27;d want to sign eventually? Eve: Years ago, I honestly never thought I would have a label. Now that I&amp;#x27;m in the position, I think this could be interesting! This could work! I&amp;#x27;m curious&amp;amp;#8212;what do you make of gender disparity in hip-hop? I feel like 2013 is marking a major shift for more women in hip-hop. Eve: Definitely. It&amp;#x27;s a great year for the emerging female artist, for sure. More now than even just a few years ago. Lil&amp;#x27; Kim&amp;#x27;s coming back, Missy [Elliott] is doing her thing too. There&amp;#x27;s Azealia Banks and Angel Haze; there&amp;#x27;s a lot of names that are bubbling and coming to the forefront. And I think we all have something different to offer. There&amp;#x27;s room for me and my opinion, sure, but there&amp;#x27;s room for all of us as well. So I love that you worked with Dawn Richard on this record [on album track &amp;quot;Keep Me From You&amp;quot;]! I got to interview her recently. She&amp;#x27;s gone the independent route as well. What was it like working with her? Eve: As an artist, I really respect her. And I think it&amp;#x27;s important that we support each other. I got to attend one of her concerts in New York recently, and I was blown away by her talent and presence. And as a person, she is such a sweetheart; I was happy she got to be on my album. Who are some dream collaborators down the line? You said before that you&amp;#x27;d love to work with Lil&amp;#x27; Kim, and you&amp;#x27;ve done some really great stuff with Gwen Stefani. Eve: Lauryn Hill. Hands down. She&amp;#x27;s always been at the top of my list. Fashion has always been a big influence of yours. You&amp;#x27;ve had your own designer line; you live in London and New York, two of the world&amp;#x27;s major fashion capitals. What are you loving in fashion right now? Eve: So lately, I&amp;#x27;ve been mixing high-end with &amp;quot;high-street,&amp;quot; as people call it in London. Like, say you mix something more urbane like Topshop or River Island with a Louis Vuitton bag. But as far as style goes, I gravitate toward anything that is effortlessly chic. I don&amp;#x27;t wanna look like I&amp;#x27;m trying too hard. And plus, I&amp;#x27;m lazy, so I wanna look good, but I don&amp;#x27;t wanna put too much work into it. I mean, you definitely have your moments where you have to ramp it up, say for an important event or meeting. But you wanna feel good. And the beauty of fashion is that you can do what you want, but it should never feel like it&amp;#x27;s not you. And you were at the Met Gala this year! What was that like? Eve: It was great! That&amp;#x27;s such an amazing event. It&amp;#x27;s always an honor and a pleasure to be invited and just to be around not even just the celebrity fashion but all the other personalities who are involved&amp;amp;#8212;from the socialites to the quirky designers that have lived in New York for years. The energy is really inspiring to be around. Are you a fan of punk rock music? Did you get a kick out of the theme? You looked so great, by the way! Eve: Yes! Punk rock is hot to me! I think any rebel or badass embodies the spirit of punk rock. There&amp;#x27;s something so raw about it, and it has such an edgy sexiness that I love. Speaking of edginess, you&amp;#x27;ve always been an artist who has explored further sonic territory beyond hip-hop. Eve: Definitely, and especially with this album and my first few singles, I intentionally avoided making songs that sounded like everything going on right now. That&amp;#x27;s would be easy for me to do. I have to push boundaries and walk to the left a little bit. That&amp;#x27;s how people pay attention. And of course, we&amp;#x27;ve gotta ask: What are your pop-culture obsessions in music, TV, or film? Eve: I mean, I&amp;#x27;ve been obsessed with this album! But, you know, there&amp;#x27;s Bravo! Anything Bravo, I&amp;#x27;m obsessed with. The Housewives of everything. Andy Cohen is hilarious. I love him. I got super into Married to Medicine. I mean, I know it&amp;#x27;s rotting my brain and I shouldn&amp;#x27;t even be into it, but I can&amp;#x27;t help it. Photos by: Amarpaul Kalirai Love her! What do you all think of Eve&amp;#x27;s new music?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/blogs/obsessed/2013/05/eve-interview>