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Album Reviews
Scorpion
*, Eve (Interscope
Records, 2001)
Entertainment Weekly (3/9/01, pp.78-9)
- "...Rooted in hardcore stomp, rhymes, boasts, and slams...SCORPION whacks
out its own path with a sharp machete....[It] pumps up the volume, the rhythms,
everything..." - muze
Scorpion *, Eve (Interscope Records, 2001) - MTV
It's difficult to maintain an element of class while rapping tough. But unlike Da Brat, Trina or Lil' Kim, Philly native Eve has managed to walk that line. Quotes like "edgy but not vulgar," "hardcore but not cheap" and "more chic than ghetto fabulous" have littered the fawning personality pieces appearing in magazines in anticipation of Eve's second album, Scorpion. Even on the first single, "Who's That Girl?", Eve herself raps about how "I keep it sexy" and "I keep it gangsta."
Hip-hop has little use for class, whereas, say, house music thrives on a certain strain of sophistication. So while Eve is perhaps the only rapper who has won the respect of both Karl Lagerfeld and the Ruff Ryders kennel, she hasn't found a way to translate her profile into compelling music. "Who's That Girl?," for instance, sounds like a decent enough hip-hop track with a Latin flava until you compare it with the song it most closely resembles, Lil' Kim's wild, technoid, rhythmically intense "No Matter What They Say". Plus, it never really gives us a sense of who that girl Eve really is. "Still need to know who I am?/ Then cop the record/ Take it like a class on me/ And learn the lesson/ Bottom line — my world, my way/ Any questions?"
Well, if you're asking, one wonders just whose world Scorpion really belongs to. The best tracks come courtesy of Swizz Beatz, the eccentric producer who oversaw most of Eve's 1999 debut, Let There Be Eve ... Ruff Ryders' First Lady. The party jam "Got What You Need" rocks with little more than is-it-live-or-is-it-Memorex drums, elementary piano chords and submarine beeps. But Swizz Beatz's wheezing synth is more expressive than Eve's rapping — which, for the most part, explains how slammin' Beatz's jam is. Speed up the stuttering orchestral hits in "Gangsta Bitches", a collaboration with Trina and Da Brat, and you have a classic house track like Royal House's "Party People." But the wittiest insight Eve offers into said "bitches" is how other B-girls were "hiding in a hole when my album got released."
Still, none of these songs are as
ear-catching as the first album's "Gotta Man." And to play up Swizz
Beatz's contributions is to point out how frequently Eve gets lots in the beats
when they're slamming, and how she never enhances them when they're not. In a
Lauryn Hill-style bid for credibility, Eve sings at various points here, most
soulfully with the great Teena Marie on "Life Is So Hard." But her
literal cover of Dawn Penn's reggae classic "No, No, No" seems
pointless. It's as if Eve is stuck between two worlds she can't unreservedly
call home — chic vs. ghetto fabulous; singing vs. rapping; the voice vs. the
beats. Hopefully, next time out, we'll find out what world she really lives in.
The Source (11/99, pp.214-6) - 3.5 mics out of 5
...this girl can spit with the big dogs. Her rhymes - intelligent, honest and
delivered with a subtle cockiness - make her shine amongst her gruff Ruff Ryder
brethren....The energy on this album is manic; every track packs a punch...
Rolling Stone (10/14/99, pp.119-120) - 3.5 stars out of 5
...powering her debut with more than just blond hair: She has an oven-roasted
voice, smooth flows and a thuggish attitude for days....Eve's luscious voice and
Swizz's beats have made her...first among equals in the Ruff Ryders...
Q Magazine (12/99, pp.130-1) - 4 stars out of 5
...the most charismatic female MC since Missy Elliot....Eve is the jewel of the
Ruff-Ryders clique and their super-fashionable, in-house producer Swizz Beats
provides the hook-heavy production that helps make her debut such a treat...
New Musical Express (11/6/99, p.37) - 7 out of 10
...she bridges the gap between Lil' Kim and Lauryn Hill...with a style al her
own....the girl has an undoubtable star power....the sweet-and-sour peroxide
'pit bull in a skirt' looks like she's here to stay.
Muzik (11/99, p.129) - 4 stars out of 5
...her full-length is a Missy/Timba-style melange of real instruments and
syallabic flows....overall more impressive than you want to give it credit for.
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