Nicki Minaj has thanked EVE for her “groundbreaking” honesty and not succumbing to the “pressure to compete” with her.
Last week, EVE released her first tell-all memoir Who’s That Girl?: A Memoir and spoke about her time on set filming the 2016 cult classic, Barbershop: The Next Cut. The First Lady of Ruff Ryderz said Minaj, who also starred in the film, earned her respect during the shoot.
“I’ve lived through what happens when women project their own insecurities onto other women,” she wrote (per The Neighborhood Talk). “It happened at the start of my career and continued in waves as my fame grew. I wasn’t going to be that woman to someone else, but in order to do that, I had to physically and mentally prepare myself.”
She added that, when they shot their scenes together, there were “no problems” and “was nothing like what I had expected”.
The Philadelphia rapper also wrote about seeing Minaj “writing songs on her bus in between takes, hurrying off set to go hit some show dates over the weekend and then come right back on set for these 12-to-16-hour shoots, all while trying to hold together her personal life and her relationship”. It made her realise that she “didn’t envy her”.
“I kind of wanted to give her a hug,” she continued. “I thought I was going to resent her, and really all I felt was compassion. I remembered being that person, the girl who felt like she had to do it all. The girl who was pressured to do it all, because it was all eyes on her. Instead of feeling insecure around Nicki, I started to sympathise with her.”
In response, Minaj shared a letter on X/Twitter, praising EVE for being so candid. “Dear Eve, the various things you’ve shared recently are groundbreaking (in my opinion) for so many reasons,” she began.
EVE’s debut book was released on September 17 via Hanover Square Press.
In other news, Minaj received backlash for mocking laid-off Atlantic Records employees as she joked, “UPS is hiring”.