Coachella 2013: Eve takes to the desert for her comeback

A lot has changed in the 11 years since Eve issued her last record.

The world of female rap became a veritable ghost town as nimble voices like the self-proclaimed “pit bull in a skirt,” Foxy Brown, Da Brat, Rah Digga, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, et al. either took a backseat or shifted their focus behind the scenes. The already largely male dominant world got an extra boost of testosterone with a surplus of new faces – until Nicki Minaj burst on the scene and helped unpack a new era of femcees.

Now new faces like Azealia Banks – who made a stellar splash on the Coachella stage last year -- Iggy Azalea and Angel Haze have found footing in a testosterone fueled genre.

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Fans longing -- and we do mean longing -- for Eve’s return were sated on Saturday afternoon, when the rapper used one of the dozens of Coachella adjacent daytime parties to mark her return with a quick set that reminded partygoers why she’s been so desperately missed from the hip-hop landscape.

Eve was one of the featured performers at Nylon Magazine’s party at the swanky Lake La Quinta Inn. The private party opted for opulence over attendance and featured shirtless bartenders crafting cocktails with Tito’s Vodka, a lavish spread of food including BBQ tofu, savory quinoa, potato salad, chicken and steak skewers, couscous and fruit salad.

The Philly native used her early afternoon performance slot to test out tracks from her long gestating comeback effort, “Lip Lock,” which is due to hit shelves May 14.

Having blazed through some of the classics that established her – club anthems “Who’s That Girl” and “Tambourine” play surprisingly well in 90-degree weather in front of a pool with dozens of sculpted bodies wearing next to nothing – she previewed a few of the record’s punchier cuts like the fierce siren blazing “EVE,” which pulls at the vicious, unforgiving flow that helped her earn her early moniker. On “Keep Me From You,” a Dawn Richard assisted dance jam that pulls from the pop world (she called it her “lollipop and butterflies” song because of the lovelorn lyrics), she tapped into an earlier style heard way back when she worked with Gwen Stefani on a pair of smash hits.

It was a quick 20-minute set, and it definitely left you wanting much, much more -- especially considering that the album features head-spinning collaborations with Snoop Dogg and Missy. But thankfully, the pit bull in a skirt is finally ready to give fans more.

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