FEATURE:
Groovelines
Eve (ft. Gwen Stefani) - Let Me Blow Ya Mind
__________
THIS feature…
explores a song that arrived in 2001. A collaboration with Gwen Stefani, Let Me Blow Ya Mind featured on Eve’s second studio album, Scorpio. The second and final single from the album, Let Me Blow Ya Mind was a huge success around the world. I remember when it came out. I was in sixth form college and would play it quite a lot. One of the best tracks of the early-2000s, I am going to go deeper for this Groovelines. Before that, if you are an Eve fan and have not checked out her memoir, written with Kathy Iandoli, then I would advise picking it up. The New Yorker published a piece on the Who’s That Girl? when it was released last year. You can pick it up here:
“The definitive autobiography from Eve, the multiplatinum, Grammy Award®–winning, Emmy®-nominated rapper, singer-songwriter, actor, mother, philanthropist, and entrepreneur.
In 1999, Eve Jihan Cooper made history with her solo debut album, Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady, reaching number one on the Billboard 200, marking her as the third female rapper to ever obtain that position. She later made history again as the first recipient ever of the Grammy Award® for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for her platinum single “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” with Gwen Stefani. Following up with three chart-topping albums that made unrivaled waves in the world of hip-hop and music, as well as trailblazing moments in TV/film and fashion, Eve now looks back on her groundbreaking career.
West Philadelphia was not for the faint of heart—Eve knows that better than anyone. However, she navigated those Philly streets (and later the rest of the world) seamlessly, though it was not without strength and resilience. She incorporates that unbridled ambition into every bar that she writes and every stage/set that she stands on. With a gritty realness that speaks to her style, she shares her experiences going from the Mill Creek Projects to Hollywood.
In this memoir, Eve reveals:
Her experience working both in hip-hop and Hollywood simultaneously
Dealing with a male-constructed industry that directly affects female rappers
The internal mental health struggles that come from fame
Her journey through fertility issues and motherhood
Working on an entertaining yet controversial talk show
Finding her balance as a wife, mother, and international superstar
Eve also unveils the war stories she’s endured throughout her career, from her entrance as “Eve of Destruction” into a male-dominated hip-hop industry, to the deeper story behind Scorpion that was never told until now, to the internal battle with her music, her label, and herself after Lip Lock.
This fearless, empowering, and inspirational memoir from hip-hop sensation Eve explores her rise to stardom as a female MC, her lasting legacy on pop culture and music, and her incredible yet enduring struggle balancing her personal life with her professional one”.
I am going to move to a feature from That Grape Juice from 2015. A decade ago, they saluted a stunning pairing. I would love to see Eve and Gwen Stefani perform this song again. Whilst Eve has appeared on singles over the past few years, she has not released an album since 2013. It is a shame that such an incredible talent is not recording at the moment. Even so, we have albums like Scorpio that demonstrate why she is such an important and influential artist. A rapper that has inspired so many other women. One of the best of all time:
“An extraordinary song that was rightly lauded by critics, Let Me Blow Ya Mind brings together this incredible Rap talent, Eve, and the lead of No Doubt, Gwen Stefani. A lot of collaborations don’t work and, in the modern age, people throw artists together for the hell of it. In the case of Let Me Blow Ya Mind, the pairing was perfect. The interplay and chemistry is exceptional. I am going to get to some contemporary analysis and reviews of Let Me Blow Ya Mind.
“Long before Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX made the masses move with their infectious Hip-Pop collabo ‘Fancy’, a fierce duo were already bridging the gap between the Urban and and mainstream arena.
This week’s From The Vault is ‘Let Me Blow Yo Mind’ by rapstress Eve and Gwen Stefani.
‘Mind’ was the second single released from E.V.E.’s second offering ‘Scorpion.’. Unleashed in 2001, it was the first of two songs produced by Dr. Dre for the duo – with the second coming a few years later in the form of ‘Rich Girl.’
The single was a chart hit reaching #2 in the United States and peaking inside the Top 5 in the United Kingdom. It was ranked the 7th biggest song of the year 01 on Billboard.
The track’s visual sported “party crasher” theme with Stefani and Jeffers inviting themselves to a chic soirée before transforming it into a titanic “turn-up.” Humorously, producer Dr. Dre makes a cameo and bails out the girls (who are arrested for their antics) from their cell.
Helmed by Phillip G. Atwell, the clip won a MTV Video Music Awards in the ‘Best Female Video’ category in 2001.
It’s pairings like these which make us root for “cross-genre” ventures. Indeed, with most of today’s collabos reeking of “convenient”, it’s refreshing to see two artists, completely different from one another, bring the best of their distinctive worlds together to make sweet music.
Eve and Gwen, we salute you!”.
In 2018, Rap Analysis dissected Let Me Blow Ya Mind. Produced by Dr. Dre and Scott Storch, even if the feature notes how Eve’s rhythms are quite simple, the way she delivered them is hypnotic. One of the most underrated rappers ever. I have chosen sections of the feature that caught my eye (and I hope it hangs together). I have heard Let Me Blow Ya Mind so many times but never tire of it:
“I recently made a rap song where I took dozens and dozens of bars from 100 different songs by 50 different artists, and freestyled through all of them by means of categories that grouped their flows together based on rhythmic similarities. Some rhythms were syncopated, some were on-beat, some were really complicated, etc. Obviously Kendrick was in there, as was André 3000, Notorious B.I.G., Lauryn Hill, Talib Kweli, Nas, and Lil Wayne…no surprises so far. But at the end of the list, who did I find but—Eve! I expected those other rappers with technical reputations to show up, but not her. What did her inclusion among such a legendary group teach me about her rap?
It showed me that Eve’s rap taps into some really fundamental facts about rap that many people gloss over, or ignore completely, when discussing the rhythmic elements of rap. The undeniable reality is that most of rap’s rhythms will always sound extremely similar to each other (in theory, at least). This is because there just aren’t that many different rhythms that rappers can pull off while still meeting all of rap’s innate requirements. These requirements include the fact that the song’s tempo must be quick/slow enough to talk over, and that the rapper must take breaths every so often. Even within a single beat with four 16th notes, there are only 12 possibilities for separate rhythms. When we expand this to a full bar and its own 4 beats, we are still left with only 240 possibilities. This might sound like a lot—and, certainly, there are more than 240 rhythms in rap’s history—but this quick-and-dirty estimation is still very small when compared to the number of different possible rhythms in instrumental musics like jazz. Trumpets, basses, drums, and saxophones obviously aren’t constricted by rap’s strict requirements around both communication and breathing.
So if there aren’t really that many possible rhythms in rap, then how come we never get bored of it?
The answer is found in the amazingly diverse world of rappers’ vocal timbres, as well as rappers’ varying amount of rhythmic swing. And, unsurprisingly, Eve brings both of those things in abundance on “Let Me Blow Ya Mind.”
As a second example, take Eve’s offbeat flow:
“EAsy come,
EAsy go,
EVie gon’ be
LAS-tin'”
Here, Eve positively explodes off the beat on the syllables “ea-“, “ev-“, and “last,” as she says them more loudly, and says them right on top of the beat. This is her hard-hitting Philly flow coming through full force.
We’ve now gotten to the heart of the matter. Eve’s style is so catchy because she takes rhythms that we’ve been hearing all our lives, and then restyles them into something completely new and super sticky with her swing and with her delivery. I’ve tried to use this big comparison in order to draw close attention to those defining features of her style. Such features aren’t complicated rhythms, like Talib Kweli’s signature style, or a super unique voice, like Aesop Rock. Instead, her legendary status rests on her ability to take really simple rhythms, and make them stick in your ear like glue…and pulling off a trick like that just goes to show that Eve really has blown our minds with this song”.
GLAMOUR spoke with Eve in 2021. Discovering the story behind five of her songs, we learn a bit more about Let Me Blow Ya Mind. Eve was told the song would not work. She made it anyway! The fact that it won a GRAMMY in 2002 for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration proves that it was a major success. Nobody should have doubted the song’s credentials:
“She dropped her debut album, Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady, in 1999. It charted number one on the Billboard 200, making the Philly native the third female rapper to achieve the accolade. What followed was a career that places Eve as an undeniable icon in the rap game. “Who’s That Girl,” the first single from her 2001 album, Scorpion, was listed number 97 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip-Hop; in that same year she won the BET award for best female hip-hop artist. Eve also took home a Grammy in 2002 for her song featuring Gwen Stefani, “Let Me Blow Ya Mind,” for best rap/sung collaboration.
It's the one song that I wrote fully—like, literally every single thing, every word. I write my own stuff, but usually I get lazy after I write verses. I don't want to write the chords, and Dre was like, “You're not leaving the studio until this song is done.” I hated him that day, but I'm so happy he made me stay.
The other thing with the song is that not only did Dre do the beat, I got a Philly native, Scott Stauch, who I've known since I was 15 years old, on the keys and then Gwen Stefani, who I was a huge fan of because of No Doubt. And I got told that that was never going to work. I got told that that song would not work, that people would be like, “Why are these two chicks together?” I was like, “Look, let's try it. If it sucks, no one ever has to hear it.” But of course it didn't. I knew it wouldn't. Thank God. And you know, I won a Grammy. That was my first Grammy”.
I am going to wrap up an interview from Billboard. In August, Eve discusses some of her best-known songs. She revealed how Let Me Blow Ya Mind is still her favourite record to perform live. It is a track that I will never tire of. I think it was the first Eve song that I heard. I might have heard Who’s That Girl? after Let Me Blow Ya Mind. She remains one of the greatest and most original rappers ever:
“Eve sat down with Billboard for a trip down memory l ane, as the Philly native recalled some of the stories behind the hits in her decorated career.
The Gwen Stefani-assisted “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” is still Eve’s “favorite record to perform” to this day after peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. “That is probably my favorite record,” she shares. “Obviously, Dre did the beat, Scott Storch on the keys. I’ve known Scott Storch since I was 14 in Philly.”
Eve knew it was Gwen Stefani or bust as a feature. “I did not want anyone else. I felt it had to be her because I could hear her voice on it,” she adds of the singer.
With Dr. Dre involved, Eve explains that he’s the ultimate producer who can take tracks to another level with his musical prowess. “As I was writing, it’s not so much that he jumps in to say this or that, but it’s how you say or deliver certain things and that makes a difference,” she says.
Eve returned the favor and scored another top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with Stefani when the duo reunited for “Rich Girl” in 2004. “This was the first time I’d gone into the studio with a woman, especially in a different genre, to watch a different writing style,” she adds of working with the No Doubt singer”.
An award-winning song from the heavyweight queens Eve and Gwen Stefani, I wanted to look inside Let Me Blow Ya Mind. I have not read Eve’s Who’s That Girl? memoir, though I will pick it up at some point. I have fond memories of Let Me Blow Ya Mind. Released when I was seventeen, I was hooked as soon as I heard it. Twenty-four years after its release and it still sounds amazing, Taken from Eve’s Scorpio, this incredible song will endure for years more. It is one of the best…
COLLABORATIONS of all time.