** Eve

LET THERE BE . . . EVE -- RUFF RYDERS' FIRST LADY

(Ruff Ryders/Interscope)

The latest 20-year-old female rapper has her own subtle way of clipping her thoughts and rhymes half a beat short while keeping her aggressive flow steady and clear. But her debut in the Billboard Top Five had more to do with her short-clipped platinum-blond 'do and the twin cat's-paw tattoos on her cleavage -- that, and the support of DMX's Ruff Ryders crew. "She's classy," Ruff Ryders CEO Darrin "Dee" Dean told Blaze magazine. "But she got a nigga attitude." In other words, her sexy-but-hard "middle ground" is usually subservient to male fantasies and prerogatives.

But not always. Yes, her talents are often blunted by her predictable role-playing -- moll, golddigger, bad mama -- or drowned out when her boisterous boyz grab the mike or blare standard martial beats behind the boards. But DMX's crew also demonstrate respect for the achievements of Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliott by supporting this Philly freshman as she occasionally explores "classy" all the way free of "nigga attitude," especially on the anti-domestic-violence showstopper "Love Is Blind." For now, though, she elevates only where the game has already been elevated.

-- Franklin Soults