PHILLY RAPPER EVE BACK AFTER 11 YEARS WITH A MUCH MORE MATURE SOUND AND STYLE

EVE

When rapper Eve first emerged in the late ’90s, she referred to herself as “a pitbull in a skirt.” Part of the Ruff Ryders crew that included rapper DMX and producer Swizz Beatz, she quickly became a mainstream pop darling, dressing in designer togs and recording hit duets with the likes of Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys and Missy Elliott.

Today, after an 11-year hiatus between albums, Eve is a lot more relaxed — and a lot less of a tomboy. A lot of that is simple maturity. Her first album was released in 1999, when she was 21. Now, at 34, she’s talkative and confident — as well as in terrific shape, thanks to her trainer, celebrity coach Michelle Lovitt.

Now living in London with her longtime beau, entrepreneur Max Cooper, founder of Europe’s Gumball 3000, a road rally featuring eye-catching sports cars, Eve has become more of a multimedia personality. During the long period between albums, she’s appeared in movies (“Barbershop”) and TV (“Glee,” “Whitney,” and her own mid-2000s UPN sitcom, “Eve”), as well as doing frequent guest-vocal spots (Luda-cris, Maroon 5) and acting as spokeswoman for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America.

“Lip Lock” is the first Eve album released since 2002’s “Eve-Olution,” but it’s not the only one she’s recorded. Two others, titled “Here I Am” and “Scorpion,” were shelved by Interscope, though it’s hard to tell if the material wasn’t up to snuff or the label’s own internal chaos — it underwent several rounds of restructuring — was to blame.

Even without label support, some tracks were issued online, such as 2009’s “Me N My,” the first dubstep track by a well-known rapper, two years before Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “N - - - - s in Paris” — and before Skrillex broke through to stardom.

After seeing so much previous work fall through, making “Lip Lock” was a pleasure, says Eve, who called in Swizz Beatz and Pharrell Williams to produce, and landed guest appearances from Snoop Dogg, Elliott, Sean Paul and the relatively unknown Jamaican artist Miss Kitty.

“I wanted to work with people that I actually enjoy listening to,” she says. “And I wanted the people on this album to want to be there — not that it was a label calling in a favor. It felt right. It felt organic. Everything, every producer that’s on it, every side artist that’s on it, it all came together so easily. There wasn’t any frustration.”

Meanwhile, Eve’s eye for fashion has only gotten sharper. While she’s tight with top designers — she performed at a Prabal Gurung party during Fashion Week in Ferbruary — she loves scouring the Internet for new looks and emerging talent.

“I’ve gotten introduced to designers on blogs or Instagram,” she says. “If I see something I love, I will follow the trail. I find a lot of fashion on Pinterest. I wish you could see my page right now. For me, it’s an inspiration. I usually pull stuff, like ‘I want to look this rock-chic-sexy. This is the look I aspire to.’ ”

Eve acknowledges that being fashion-forward is more important than ever. The Web can spread a hot trend in a matter of hours. But it can also dish out pain to those who don’t look the part.

When the last album came out, “you only really got dressed for things you needed to get dressed for. Now you’ve got to worry about how cute you are in the radio station, because everything’s video taped. It wasn’t like that before.”