I preferred Eve when she looked like Cleo from Set It Off's little sister back in 1999. Not that I mind that her look has changed over the years, which has her now looking more like a well paid Ronnie from The Player's Club, but artistically, there was a certain rawness to her when she came onto the scene. She seemed real with very little inhibitions. Despite her previous stint as a stripper, she didn't rely much on sexuality to sell records like her counterparts Lil Kim and Foxy Brown. Her aggressiveness made her stand out among a sea of half-naked female emcees.

Then she went Hollywood and found Marilyn Monroe's old wig.

Outside of a few singles here and there, her music has become stale, predictable, and she seems incredibly bored with it all. Though I've never seen a tambourine used to rile people up outside of church, the Swizz Beats-produced first single from Eve's fourth album, Here I Am, has finally grown on me. It happened the second after I realized that the line in the chorus is saying "Go and get yourself a whistle" instead of "Go and get yaself a Mus-sa-lem." I'm slow sometimes.

What really gets me about her, though, is that now she seems more guarded and has seemingly developed some bizarre disease that forces her to talk out the side of her neck.

It started when she criticized certain forms (re: regions) of hip hop, namely D4L's "Laffy Taffy" for being disposable, but opted to forgo leading by example with the release of "Tambourine." Or maybe there's some social commentary included in the song that went over my head.

And in a recent interview with HX magazine, Eve discussed support from the gay community. Interestingly enough, Here I Am features a collaboration with Sizzla, someone notorious for the homophobic content in his music. That's kind of like someone saying I appreciate the coloreds, then appearing at a fundraiser for David Duke.

Also, despite her speaking on people who are closeted in the entertainment industry in the Q&A, she glanced over a few things about herself.

Ok, so maybe she's not gay, but I do remember seeing a picture of her being ate out by another chick. Not completely over the rainbow, but I do see a lot of colors in the sky.

Back to those comments about disposable music, here's what she told HX about her own album:

I didn’t want to do anything too slow or serious, and I didn’t want to do anything that was too much me talking about myself and me coming back in the game and how long it’s been. I wanted to do an album like the ones that make me drive in the car or make me feel good to get dressed to go out to the club— just make my day right. Those are the albums that I listen to, and hopefully that’s the album that I made.

Mr. Chik-O-Stick, meet Mrs. Bubblegum.