Eve Talks Stripper Life & How Mase Saved Her

Posted: Thursday – June 17, 2010

Female raptress Eve tells about her encounter with former Bad Boy rapper Mase who encouraged her to stop stripping and start rapping.

According to Mahogany Cafe, Eve stopped attending class and barely graduated high school. Once her mother remarried, she moved to New York and started working as a dancer in a Bronx strip club where she initially met Mase. He encouraged her to stop dancing and start rapping on a professional level.

Eve spoke to VH1 on an episode of Behind The Music about her chat with Mase in the 90’s. “He came into the club and looked at me and literally was like, ‘What’s your name?’ And I gave him every stripper name under the sun! I was like, ‘I’m Ginger, I’m Sassy!’ He was like, ‘Why don’t you go get dressed, let’s go just talk.’ And we did, we talked throughout the night. He was like, ‘You’re really talented. What are you doing? You know you’re not supposed to be here. You know it.’ It was a confirmation for me that all these thoughts, all this sadness. All these times that I wake up in the morning, I’m like, ‘Why do I feel like this?’ And I know I’m not supposed to be there. It just woke me up,” Eve states, realizing that she might have never explored her lyrical talents any further if it weren’t for former Bad Boy recording artist.

Eventfully, Eve was able to attain a meeting which turned into an audition with Dr. Dre and she signed a one-year deal with Dre’s new label Aftermath. With limited publicity and guidance, Eve’s one year contract had ended before she knew it and along with the new label she was lost. Unfortunately she didn’t have the opportunity to began crafting an album, but she was able to link up with DMX which was a great foot forward for her new career as Ruff Ryder’s first lady, and Eve recorded her first album, Ryde or Die, Vol. 1, via Interscope Records.

Although Eve just completed her third album with Interscope, they have decided to end their relationship with her — she was recently dropped from the label.

In a recent interview with VIBE, she explains what happened and how she was dropped. “Interscope was stupid because they didn’t drop me at first, they just shelfed me, and dropped the ball. After Tambourine, they straight up were like, ‘Umm, yeah, nah, we’re not putting out the record.’ After that I was like, ‘Y’all gotta let me go. I’ve been here 11 years and you’re fronting on me?’ It got to that point… They promised me the machine. The machine is basically the roll out. It’s ‘Yo, when ‘Flirt’ comes out, we’ll give you this, we’ll give you that. And that’s what made me mad. It’d be different if we didn’t have a meeting where people promised me sh*t. If they were just like, ‘Oh we’re going to put the album out and see what happens,’ that would be one thing… But they were like, ‘No, we’re making sure this happens, it’s coming out on this date.’ It was concrete. But it’s all good, everything happens how it’s supposed to, when it’s supposed to.”

Eve’s album, Here I Am, which featured the hit single Tambourine, was scheduled to come out in 2007, but was shelved by her then-label home Interscope. The album will reportedly feature a song with Akon and she has added Kelly Rowland to her wish list of people to work with on the project.