Hip-Hop icon Eve has never shied away from honesty in her music, and her recently released memoir Who’s That Girl continues that transparency. The Grammy-winning rapper pulls back the curtain on her private life, revealing untold stories about her journey through the music industry, Hollywood, and personal struggles. Among the candid confessions is a surprising detail: a short-lived romance with Death Row Records founder Suge Knight.
According to Eve, the two first crossed paths backstage at the 2001 Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. Still reeling from unresolved feelings connected to Dr. Dre, with whom she had collaborated on their hit “Let Me Blow Ya Mind,” Eve admitted her motivation for approaching Knight was partly fueled by a sense of “sweet revenge.”
“I knew what I had to do,” she wrote, explaining that she had her security guard set up an introduction. “I was still in my little mood about Dre even though we made a solid hit together, so having Suge, his former boss at Death Row, stomping around Interscope felt like some sweet revenge. I am not really sure how I concocted this idea, yet here we were…”
Their connection didn’t go unnoticed. Eve suggested in the book that Knight’s presence at Interscope’s offices may have strained her relationship with music executive Jimmy Iovine. Ultimately, though, it wasn’t industry politics that ended the fling—it was family.
Eve recalled that Ruff Ryders founders Dee and Waah Dean, who had been instrumental in her career, firmly advised her against continuing the relationship. “They didn’t like the idea of me hanging out with Suge at all,” she revealed. “When my guys said it was time to cut the cord, I didn’t think twice.”
Even Knight himself seemed to agree with the decision. When Eve called to officially end things, she says he told her, “If I was your little sis, I would tell you the same thing.”
While the anecdote is just one chapter in Who’s That Girl, it highlights Eve’s candid reflections on her past and the unique challenges she faced navigating fame as a woman in Hip-Hop. Beyond relationships, the memoir—co-written with veteran Hip-Hop journalist Kathy Iandoli—dives deep into her rise in a male-dominated industry, battles with mental health, fertility struggles, and her path to motherhood.
Source: Vibe