There is a popular saying that there are only two things in life that are guaranteed, death and taxes. Well, I would like to add a third one to that list: change. It happens to all of us throughout different stages of our existence. Even Grammy award winning Rap artist Eve has acknowledged this necessary fact of life during several interviews she’s done to promote her latest album, Lip Lock.
“Its just natural growth,” Eve explains in her own words, “you’re not the same person as you were ten years ago or at least you shouldn’t be.” Coincidentally, it has been just over ten years since she last released an album and that change is evident throughout this recording.
Eve, who has been living in London for more than a year, has obviously been introduced to different kinds of music and different kinds of people in her travels. The music on this album has a more global sound than her earlier releases and reflects a matured sensibility.
For instance, on the album’s lead single “Make It Out This Town,” she collaborates with Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship, a dance-pop band. This is significant because I remember Eve when her career first began. A self-described “pit bull in a skirt,” she was a fierce female MC whom I just couldn’t imagine making such a record at the time. The pop material is kept to a minimum on this album though. On the track “EVE,” a braggadocios song about her accomplishments, she spits fire over a dynamic Hip-Hop track. In the song, Eve proclaims herself as “the queen” and “the champion” while rocking back and forth between an old school flow and a more contemporary vocal delivery.
However, let’s get down to the important question looming over this album release: who’s going to buy it? Eve is thirty-four years old and her career began before Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram and most other internet social media were even invented. However I don’t think that it would be fair to lock her into the box of being an ol’ school artist. She has shown the ability to mix, match, and incorporate newer rapping styles. Plus, the musical tones in her tracks do reflect the type of sounds that I hear from younger artists.
Ultimately, regardless of age, if you are a fan of the art form of rapping, Eve’s new album will not disappoint you. She is one of the great MC’s that we have and her staying power in the industry can attest to this. As Eve has stated herself, the tantalizing album title is not only a reference to her favorite feature of herself, but also to her stature in the rap industry. “It’s cute, it’s flirty,” she says, “but also a play on words, like I got the game on lock.”
Lip Lock receives a PAR
Rating:
P…Horrible
PA…Tolerable
PAR…Good
PARL…Kinda Great
PARLÉ… Classic
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