Rapper Eve sold the publishing rights to her music catalog for between $25 million to $50 million.
According to a press release on Wednesday, Iconoclast acquired the “publishing rights to the catalog of double platinum-selling and Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Eve.”
Sources tell Music Business World that the deal is between $25 million to $50 million.
Eve’s catalog includes her debut studio album, Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady (1999). The double platinum album spawned the hit songs “What Ya Want”, “Love Is Blind”, and “Gotta Man”.
Eve’s second studio album, Scorpion (2001), peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. The album’s lead single, “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” (featuring Gwen Stefani), peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Eve the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, and an MTV Video Music Award.
Eve’s humble beginnings include a stint as a stripper at age 18. Rapper Mase convinced her to stop dancing for money and pursue a career as a rapper. But in her new memoir, Who’s That Girl?, Eve said Beyonce’s husband, Jay Z tried to discourage her from rapping.
Eve talked about a phone call she received from Jay Z in the ’90s cautioning her about “getting her hopes up” of ever having a career as a rapper. He warned her that women “don’t really do that well” in the entertainment business. Another music executive later told her she should give up rapping and just get pregnant by some rich guy.
Eve, 45, upgraded when she married British entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper. They share a son, Wilde Wolf Fife Alexander Somers Cooper, and Eve is stepmother to Cooper’s four children.
In her memoir, Eve said her overzealous fans made up her husband’s billionaire status. She wouldn’t have to keep working if he was a billionaire.
The video below explains why celebrities are struggling because there’s no money in the music industry.
