Eve and Missy Elliott: Taking RAP To A New Level

THIRTY minutes. That's how long it took for Missy Elliott and Eve --hip-hop s hottest females--to show and prove that they have indeed taken rap to a new level. The two were in a Miami photo studio for their first-ever photo shoot together--and amazingly, the frost flash went off only a half-hour late.

In the world of hip-hop--where no one is ever on time for anything, where it is expected that even the two-bittiest of rhymers will show up for a shoot two hours late, and waste two more hours complaining to their entourage about the lighting, the temperature, the clothing, the hair, the makeup, the color scheme--the mere fact that two of rap's most sought-after ladies were on time and ready to work was evidence that a new day has dawned.

The two seemed at ease together as they posed for photo after photo. Eve had lent her vocals to a song on Missy latest CD, Miss E ... So Addictive, so the obvious friendship and mutual respect showed. They laughed and joked with each other as each talked about the hectic schedule that lies ahead for them. Missy was in the midst of traveling cross-country to promote her CD, while Eve was about to begin a grueling concert tour.

During the past five years, Missy and Eve not only have sold more CDs than any other female hip-hop artists, but perhaps have done more than anyone else in the industry to wring the rank out of rap, to bring new respectability to the oft-maligned female purveyors of the art form who have had an identity crisis ever since the first Sister picked up a microphone.

They have brought new beats and new rhythms, new flows and new subjects to rap, selling innovative music without selling their soul. They will never rap about violence. Never pimp themselves for platinum status. Never put their business in the street to make headlines. They have aligned themselves with the right people, and have schooled themselves in fashion, etiquette, and protocol. They are streetwise. But they are also industry-smart, having squirreled away much of their earnings in safe investments, and opportunistically pursued other areas such as management, acting and modeling. They are complex divas and simple homegirls, hard and soft, all at the same time.

They are recognized in the inner-city as well as the suburbs, and respected throughout music circles. Rocker Mick Jagger even thought so much of Missy that he asked her to work with him on his upcoming solo album. "I kind of remain in a category of my own," says Missy, whose current CD sold 250,000 copies (or 1,500 every hour of every day) in the first week of release. "I'm not a follower. I'm not a copycat. I'm an original. That's important to staying around for a long time. I continuously keep coming up with different stuff. My fans expect something different from me every time."

While music is a passion for both ladies, it is also a career to these women, a business that must be approached in a professional manner. They don't travel with large entourages, yes-men and yeswomen who pander to their every whim. If they want something, they'd just as soon get it for themselves. If they want to make a phone call, they do it themselves. "I love the work," Eve says. "There are days when I wake up and I'm tired. But I love being tired. Just because I'm working. Just because I know where I could be. I have a beautiful life."

In the process, they have written new rules, redefined what it takes for a woman to make it in the world of hip.hop. "Females bring style, image to rap," Missy says. "Guys pretty much can be in some jeans and say whatever they want to say. We're the real trendsetters. You have a lot of young female teenagers who look up to us and want to be sassy like we are."

Just like other ladies in hip-hop, the two say they have been told time and time again that female rappers have to be nasty roughnecks to make it in rap. But they refused to believe that a woman rapper has to dress half-naked and use sex as a gimmick to sell CDs. And while they can get down-and-dirty at times, on recordings and onstage, they have been successful in using sexuality and hard language naturally, in a way that their female fans can relate to.

"The hardest thing about being a female rapper is proving yourself," says Missy, who worked as a songwriter and producer before hitting the music scene in 1997 with Supa Dupa Fly and two years later with the release of Da Real World. "This is a male-dominated field and you get male rappers all day long. But there are only a few females who will be a household name. Being accepted by the guys, who think you are hot and respect your talent, is important."

Eve agrees, adding that she hasn't experienced any blatant disrespect because she is a female, but the subtle things are there every day. "Just because it's a male-dominated field, I have had to work twice as hard as the men," says the 22-year-old Philadelphia native, who sold 2 million copies of her 1999 debut, Let There be Eve: Ruff Ryder's First Lady, and watched her new CD, Scorpion, spend weeks at No. 1. "People look at you, especially when you look decent, and say things like, 'You' re kind of hot. Can I take you out?' It's not like that. I stand my ground. I'm like, 'I'm doing my thing just like you are. You respect me, respect my work, or leave me alone.'"