Eve has managed to reinvent herself in many different ways outside of music, but of course, she is a legend in hip hop. Even though she has been straying away from music during the past couple of years, it’s always interesting to know how an artist came up in the game and made a name for themselves. In a recent interview with Luc Belaire CEO Brett Berish, she shared her experiences on signing with Dr. Dre, Ruff Ryders, and much more.

“My first ever deal was with Dr. Dre,” Eve said. “His right-hand man came to Philly, and my managers at the time were the local drug dealers. My homies. They called me and was like, ‘we got Dre’s right-hand man’ coming in town, we just taking him around. But, you gonna act like the weed girl, cause he want some weed.’ I was like, alright cool. But what the hell I do when I ain’t got no weed. He was like ‘we just gon’ put on some music, you start rapping.’ And that’s what happened.”

She then continues the story by saying that she got to the house, stood up, put a tape in, and started rapping. “He was like ‘the f*** is happening.’ He thought I was selling weed, he was like ‘where’s the weed?’ Then he finished listening to me, letting me rap, and he called Dre right there. He was like ‘yo, I think we found our girl.’ That next weekend, I was in LA doing a demo for Dr. Dre. It was nuts. But then I got dropped, eight months later, and was back in Philly.” She said. “It felt like s***, it felt crazy. I had this big going away party, I was in this condo, I had all this money, I was eighteen…And then they dropped me.”

Although Eve had been dropped from Aftermath, her buzz continued to grow and caught the eyes of the Ruff Ryders.

“I got another call, like ‘yo, you need to go up to Yonkers. Tonight. Ruff Ryders, they might want to sign you, but you gotta go battle for it. So I went up to Yonkers, and they put me in a cypher. I basically battled for my life.” After showing what she could do, she signed a deal with Ruff Ryders afterward. “If you get another call, you gotta be ready. Period.”

Watch the full interview below: