Eve is still just as feisty and disapproving of nonsense as she was 26 years ago. Her persona as the Pit Bull in a Skirt came from being the sole female emcee of the Ruff Ryders crew fronted by DMX. Her signature cornrows and tapered hairstyles, the paw print tattoos on her chest and Philadelphia swag further cemented her as an artist in a lane all her own at a time when female voices in Hip Hop were few.

Present day, there are a host of ladies holding their own in the genre, a feat that she embraces as a sign of improvement within the industry. “I think we have more female rappers than we’ve had in a long time at one time,” she told Capital XTRA, a British radio station, in an interview Friday (March 7) spotlighting International Women’s Day (March 8). But there is so much more to be achieved. “There aren’t enough females in the exact [leadership] roles. I don’t think that there’s enough females behind the cameras making the videos, that are producing, like, it could definitely improve,” she shared.

Making her presence known in Hip Hop

Eve made her mark in the game with her first single, “What Ya Want,” which was released as part of the Ryde or Die Vol. 1 compilation album in 1999. Her freshman body of work, Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady, was released the same year with “Love Is Blind,” a song that told a cautionary tale about domestic abuse, as well as “What Y’all Want (Remix).” While she had free rein to shape her artistry as a newcomer, the lyricist admitted that a shift of influence happened once her profitability had been proven.

The veteran hitmaker disclosed, “The only pressure I felt is probably after the successes because it’s one of those things where it’s like, OK, you came through, you’re the newbie … I think after the second album is when it started becoming like people started giving me ideas of things I should be doing.” Her sophomore effort, Scorpion, rolled out in 2001 with the wildly popular “Who’s That Girl?” and “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” featuring No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani. The latter hit won her a Grammy at the 2002 awards ceremony. “I started feeling like, ‘Oh, maybe I should … This is what I should be doing to continue the success or whatever,’” she recalled.

The songs that fans will never hear

Every artist has a vault of recordings that they never intend to share with the world, and Eve is no exception. The actor, author and innovator admitted that there was a point in time when she lost a sense of her artistry. “I was about to get dropped from my label, and they kept throwing stuff at me, and I was so fearful of being dropped that I was like I’mma go in the studio with anybody, everybody, anybody, at all times, and it was not authentic to me. And those songs never would come out because it’s like that’s not who I am as an artist,” explained the Barbershop star.

To hear more about Eve’s career recollections, plus to learn how she ranks some of her biggest records, check out the full interview below.