The No Limit Chronicles gave fans an inside look into the rise and fall of the celebrated Lousiana collective, and now BET is highlighting the Ruff Ryders Chronicles. The latter label featured the likes of Jin, DMX, The Lox, Jadakiss, and more, including their First Lady, Eve. The rapper chatted about her time with Ruff Ryders, telling Entertainment Tonight that the crew was fiercely protective of her every move.
"I was the most protected female on the planet at that time," said Eve. "I was Baby Sis, but not like, coddled. Baby Sis in a way that you were gonna protect, she hustles with us." Before tapping into Ruff Ryders's crew, Eve said she worked as the "laziest stripper" and one day, Bad Boy's Mase came into her club.
"It was a slow night and this guy comes walking in, and one of the girls who I hung out with was like, 'Yo that's that new kid, he just got signed to Puff.' I go over there and I'm kinda just like, 'Yeah, what's up, you want a dance?'" Eve recalled. Mase wasn't interested in her dancing, but he did ask her what her life goals were. "I was like, 'You don't know me, don't be asking about me!' Long story short, he literally was like, 'You're not supposed to be here. What is it that you wanna do?' I told him I wanna be a rapper, and he was like, 'Get dressed, let's go ride around the city and listen to some beats.'"
Mase wasn't kidding, either. "We literally just rolled around the city until the sun came up. He listened to me rap. I never saw him again from that night until I got signed to Ruff Ryder," Eve added. "He would come up to the studio almost every day while I was doing my first album, and just was such a supportive person. He opened up a church in Atlanta years after, and I was always telling people he was supposed to do that, he knows some things, and that he sent me a message that I needed to hear at that time. It was incredible."
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