3. Who are you again?
It’s been highly publicized that she’s had an 11 year layoff musically. Her most notable moments in that 11 year period were on the screen. She had a buzz in 2007 when “Tambourine” dropped but the label ended up delaying that album until…well…2013 essentially.* The world has changed a LOT in 11 years and in this game in this rap business you’re pretty much a stranger if it’s been more than 7 years between projects. At that point, you need to gradually come back via features and most notably, mixtapes. I’m not completely a fan of giving away your craft, but if you choose to be a music artist, this is what your business entails nowadays. Eve DEFINITELY should have released a mixtape, maybe two before dropping this album. A Tambourine second remix would have been a fabulous idea for this release. People loved that song and tying her back to a song that not only did really well but to a moment that folks can identify her with would have been great in accompaniment with some more tracks. With Minaj being pretty much the head chick in charge musically right now, she needed to either try to align herself with her on a feature or go the total opposite direction and get on a track with some other female emcees such as Nitty Scott MC, Rapsody, etc.