Eve Jihan Jeffers Cooper is a rapper and actress best known as Eve, the First Lady of Ruff Ryders Entertainment, and for her appearances in the Barbershop movie series. Jeffers was born on November 10, 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Jerry Jeffers, was a supervisor at a chemical plant, and her mother, Julie Wilcher, was a supervisor at a publishing company. Jeffers was interested in singing early and sang in many local church choirs. After graduating from Martin Luther King High School in Philadelphia, Jeffers formed an all-female singing group called Dope Girl Posse. The group’s manager suggested they turn to rapping, and Jeffers began to hone her style and skills. Meanwhile, she worked as a stripper to make ends meet, until rapper Mase convinced her to stop.
Jeffers signed a deal with Aftermath Entertainment in 1998, and originally performed under the name Eve of Destruction. She released her first single “What Ya’ll Want” in 1999, and the song reached no. 1 on the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart. Jeffers released her first album Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady in September 1999. The album has since been certified double platinum after selling over two million copies. Her second album, Scorpion (2001), was certified platinum after selling one million copies. Jeffers’s third album Eve-Olution (2002), was certified gold, and she made her acting debut in the movie XXX the same year.
Jeffers has been on dozens of magazine covers, including Essence, Rolling Stone, and Ebony, and had her own clothing line called Fetish (2003-2009). From 2003 to 2006, Jeffers had the starring role in the sitcom Eve on the UPN network. Throughout her career, she had musical collaborations with Gwen Stephani, Ludacris, Alicia Keys, Adam Levine, Shaggy, Kelly Rowland, and numerous others. Jeffers has also been on tours across the globe as a solo artist and performing alongside others. She has received several awards, including a BET award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist (2001), a Grammy award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (2002), and a Soul Train Award for Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video (2000).
Jeffers began dating British millionaire Maximillian Cooper in 2010, and the couple married in Ibia, Spain in 2014. After an eleven-year hiatus, she released her fourth studio album Lip Lock (2013) under the label RED. In 2017, Cooper became a regular co-host of the CBS daytime show The View, and remained with the show until November 2020, when she resigned due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, and to focus on her podcast in England. Cooper stars alongside singer Brandy in the ABC musical series Queens’ (2021), and recently announced that she is expecting her first child in February 2022.
