Eve is reinvigorated. It’s been nearly three years since her last album Lip Lock, but the rapper-actress-mogul says “exciting things are happening now with music.”
While promoting Barbershop: The Next Cut with her co-star Regina Hall, E-V-E revealed why she’s been away from the rap game for so long. “What kept me away wasn’t something that was conscious,” she told Rap-Up TV. “It was more just life stuff. I moved to a new country, I got married. I just needed to settle again.”
She appears to have settled following her 2014 wedding to entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper, and her work in Barbershop is another sign of that. But it was this reoccurring role, alongside Ice Cube, Common, Nicki Minaj, and Hall, that also helped reenergize her MC spirit.
“Being on a set like Barbershop and being with so many people,” she explained, “Regina included…People don’t really know Regina though, I call her my manager. We talked about doing music. And even talking to Common. Common would be like, ‘Are you writing?’ You get inspired and I’m in a nice place now where I do feel inspired.”
Eve doesn’t have a timeline for her return just yet, although her “manager” Hall says she has to get one soon. However, the Philly rapper did give us a hint about what fans can expect from her next outing.
“I think it’ll represent my growth. It’ll represent who I am and where I am at this point in my life,” she said while coyly looking at Hall. “That’s as much as I was coached to say.”
Hall might be her new “manager,” but really she’s just a big supporter when it comes to her co-star’s skills on the mic.
“She’s extremely talented,” said Hall. “She’s so great at what she does and we do, we miss her. We need many voices and her voice was and still is so loved and cherished and remembered. She’s also just lyrically amazing. We love and always celebrate a dope female lyricist.”
Catch Eve’s return to the big screen as Terri in Barbershop: The Next Cut, which hits theaters April 15.