January 25, 2013

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Following an eleven-year recording hiatus, rapper-actress Eve has announced that her fourth studio album will be released this spring. "You can officially expect 'Lip Lock' on May 14," she promises in a new interview.

While she originally started work on the follow up to 2002's Eve-Olution in 2007, Eve scrapped the project due to issues with her then-label, Interscope, and started over from scratch. "It's not the same record," she tells Billboard. "I just kept the same name. It took a minute to get out of the situation that I was in back then. That's what took so long."

Eve says that Lip Lock will be released on her own independent label, the recently formed FTR Music, or From the Ribs Music. The album will be distributed through Sony/Red.

The Grammy winning artist dropped a buzz single, titled "She Bad Bad," on Oct. 9, a track she considers different than anything she's done in the past.

The video posted on Jan. 8 and has already hit over 1.2 million views on YouTube. "It blew me away," says Eve in response to the fan reception. "It makes me feel like people definitely did miss me and they want to hear some more."

Eve's new single, "Make it Out This Town," will emerge in the next three weeks. "It is a track about being in a dark place -- or you could literally say being in the town that you're in but you have bigger dreams or bigger hopes… just making it out of that situation and knowing that you can do whatever it is that you put your mind to. It's a song that I'm dedicating and using with my partnership with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America."

Lip Lock will also include guest appearances by Snoop Dogg and Chrisette Michele, as well as a few other "little surprises" that Eve alluded to.

"There are so many great tracks on the album," says Eve who ran us through her favorites: "'Eve' is one of my favorites. I'm obsessed with it! 'Mama in the Kitchen' is the one with Snoop on it. I love that! Those and 'Make it Out This Town' -- which is a very positive record -- are probably my top 3."

The rapper refers to her latest endeavor as more musical than her past releases. "It's everywhere. There's some club stuff on there, there's some mid tempo stuff, there's some slow stuff on there," she revealed, adding, "It's not the sound that people are used to."

Regardless of her stylistic changes, Eve is confident that she'll still appeal to her loyal fans.

"One of the biggest things that I wanted to do on this album was make people realize why they fell in love with me in the first place and then take them on a journey to where I am now musically. My ear is different but I think people will recognize me. I think you'll hear that I'm in a happy place. I miss my music. My hunger is different than the first time around.

Interesting that even people who aren't international superstars can get distribution deals when they're not demanding multi-million dollar advances.

She is still so beautiful. Looking forward to hearing this.