"Shady Bizzness: " Life as Eminem's Bodyguard in an Industry of Paper Gangsters" (10 page)

was going back to war. I knew that if I slipped or if Slim slipped, our lives
would be in jeopardy. I tried to instill this in Slim’s mind, and he would
wear the vest most of the time and only take it off when he got hot in the
recording studio, but that only lasted a short time. I wore my vest from
the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep. One time, I even fell asleep
in my vest because I was on some paranoid shit. I would sit outside the
studio door for the sixteen-hour sessions while Slim was recording with
studio door for the sixteen-hour sessions while Slim was recording with
shot Glock on my lap at all times. I placed my off-duty police officers at
each exit, with guns ready just in case any gangsters showed.They already
knew to shoot to kill. I was on a survival mission to make it home to my
family in one piece.

Right around this time, I got some unpleasant news. Sarge and
Rowe, Dre’s security guards, had been fired. My mind was blown. They
were my mentors, the best bodyguards I had ever known, and they had
really taken good care of Dre. They had been fired? They took care of Dre,
but Dre fired them. I thought that was pretty fucked up. The rumor was
that they asked for more money and had been fired and told that there was
no room for what they were making in the budget.The most shocking part
for me was that they replaced Sarge and Rowe with former bodyguards of
Death Row. I knew if the best in the business had been fired, supposedly
for asking for more money, then Slim and Paul would get it in their minds
that if Dre wasn’t paying his security guys more money, why should they?
I knew that Paul would start tripping, and that is exactly what happened.

The thing that bothered me was that these guys used to work for
Death Row. I think I was more worried about these guys than anybody
else. Why would Aftermath hire the same guys that used to work for Mr.
Marion Knight? Unless they had established a bond with Dre before
and weren’t really affiliated with the bullshit when Dre left Death Row,
I couldn’t understand it. When I think of Death Row, I immediately put
my defenses up. I immediately acquainted myself with these guys, and
they seemed pretty cool, but the first thing out of their mouths was, “We
used to work for Death Row, we used to be Suge Knight’s bodyguards, ”
so a flag went up that I was going to have to watch these cats. However, in
retrospect I doubt if Dre would allow his company to hire someone who
would put his life in danger. It was weird because the guys asked me to let
them bring some additional guys on to help me, but I was like, “Naw, man,
I’m gonna stick with my own people, people that I handpicked myself. No
offense to y’all. ” I acquainted myself with these guys, but at the same time
I kept myself at a distance because I was just really leery of anyone who
was outside of our camp for the most part. Needless to say, those guys did
their job. They kept the studio on lockdown, but they just weren’t Sarge
and Rowe. I wasn’t entirely comfortable in that environment without
Sarge and Rowe.

I considered these guys to be the best in the game. But then, we
were all dispensable. The worse part of it all was that Sarge and Rowe
found out that they were fired through me. The day they were fired, we
were in the studio, and I received a call that they were fired. I couldn’t
contact them that weekend because they had been given that weekend
off. It turned out they were fired on their day off! It was truly a mess,
because when Rowe got the message I left him, he called me. I didn’t say
on the message that he was fired, I said I was sorry about the news. When
he returned my call, he was like, “Man, what were you talking about, what
news?” I then told him what happened. We were at the studio right then,
and there were two new cats from Death Row working their spots. Rowe
told Sarge the news, and to this day they have no idea why they were
dismissed. Aftermath never gave them a formal dismissmal. All they knew
were the rumors that they had asked for too much money. Personally, I
can’t see those guys asking for too much money. Everybody needs a raise
here and there. They had been with Dre at least a couple of years.You put
your life on the line for these people, and you are the least appreciated
soul in the camp. Somewhere down the line, someone has to realize that
you can’t do your personal security like that. I am speaking for Sarge and
Rowe, myself, and all of the other guys out here who refuse to get pimped
in the security game. The worse part was that I didn’t have the security of
having Sarge and Rowe there. If some gangsters decided to run up in the
studio and start some shit, I knew Sarge and Rowe had my back. I had my
other guys there, but again, they weren’t Sarge and Rowe. I talk to them
every now and then, and they are doing pretty good. Because they are
the best, they are always going to have work. It was just reinforced to me
through their experience that you can put your life on the line for your
client, but you are still disposable.

I was enjoying my day at home—doing some dishes, calling
everybody and telling them I was home—and it felt good to call everybody
and give them the lowdown on all the shit that had been going down.
Everybody was just on edge and couldn’t wait to hear what happened next,
who I had seen and who I was hanging out with in the studio, and for me
that’s never really been any big deal because I’ve always done security for
different people and had pretty much met everybody; they are just people
with money, ya know? So, I caught up with my people, and we all hooked
up and tried to get some things going. It was just cool, and I really enjoyed
my first day home. On October 16th I called Slim, with like, “Yo, man,
whass up? What’s the deal?” and he said. “Well, yo, man, tonight we all
want to hang out, so I’m going to give you a call and tell you what’s what
so we can all hang out, man. I want to go to The Shelter (an underground
hip-hop club in Detroit where Slim Shady paid a lot of his dues). So, I was
like, “OK, cool. We can do that. Just hit me when you’re ready. ”

On that day, I took my son to get his hair cut and went and washed
the grip again, did a little shopping, and took the wife to the movies.While
I was at the movies I got a call from Slim telling me what time we were
hanging out, so I was like, “That’s all right, that’s cool, man. I’ll see you in
a couple hours. ” I told the old lady what was going on, and she kind of
understood that I was on call, but she didn’t like it at all and cursed me
out because I left my phone on in the show. Even though I had it on low
ring, she still didn’t like it, and she was like, “Well, when you are with me,
you shouldn’t have it on at all, ” and I was like, “Well, baby, you know that
even when I’m at home, this is my job. I told you that before, and I need
you to be supportive of that. ” She felt like Slim was robbing her of her
time with me, and I can understand that, but at the same time this was
my job, and I needed her to be supportive. I guess at that time she felt
like she was being more than supportive, and we got into a blowout about
that, but it blew over, we resolved it, and it was cool. As the night went
on, Slim never called me back, but I got a call from Proof telling me that
they had all gone out, and they were deep enough so that they didn’t need
me, and I was like, “All right, that’s cool. ” It was cool that the D12 had
got together to take Slim out and get him out of that hotel room, because
that’s no way for anybody to have to spend their birthday—you know,
alone, beefing with your old lady, and you can’t see your kids. You need to
be around somebody because that’s some suicidal shit there. But again, as
usual, Proof saved the day—that’s my man.

October 17th was Slim’s birthday, and his crew took him out the
night before because he wanted to spend the day of his birthday with
Hailey. I called him to see if he needed anything or if he wanted me to go
out anywhere with him and also to wish him a happy birthday. He said,
“Na, I’m just going to chill with the family. I’m cool. ” I said, “OK, man. If
you need anything just call me and let me know, it’s all good. ” I proceeded
to have a good day that day. I went to church and went to go visit some
of my family. It was cool. I had slipped back into family mode, doing my
church duties and visiting my family and friends, and it was beautiful.
It was a complete day; it looked like I might actually enjoy two days in a
row off this time. I can say even though I didn’t get paid the amount of
money I would have liked to have been paid, the downtime of the job with
the pay was the best damn part. But the thing is that with that came the
inconveniences, as well. But other than that, it was OK.

But as the day came to an end, I was sitting in my fully furnished
basement, where I always dwell when I am at home on the Internet. It was
about 10 p. m. , and I got a call from Paul Rosenburg, Slim’s manager. I
knew it was some deep shit because the only time Paul calls me is if there
is something very important or if something very fucked up has happened.
I was thinking it was one of two things: either something was wrong
with Slim or we had to leave tomorrow. So I was like, “What’s up, man?
Everything straight?” And he was like, “Naw, man. I got some bad news.
” I was thinking we had to leave tomorrow, so I’m like, “Yeah, man. Well,
what’s up?” And he was like, “Kurupt’s bodyguard got killed last night, and
Daz got grazed in the leg. ” I was like, “What?” and he said another guy
got shot, and I asked him whom they were saying did it, and he said, “I
don’t know. They got a good idea, but they don’t really know. There were
allegations about the beef between Kurupt and the Ruff Ryders with the
shit he said on a song. Then there was another rumor that it was gang
related. ” But the one thing I did know was that it was a bodyguard dead.
And what was so coincidental was that it happened at one of the studios
we had been at once or twice. This was too close to home. The sad thing
was that this guy was supposedly a family man who had two kids. It was
truly sad, whether he was a family man or not. Hearing about somebody
else being killed made me look back to the situation in Hawaii and the
situation at the studio.

That was one of my biggest fears, what happened to that bodyguard.
I often worried about somebody running up in the studio shooting to kill
somebody. Some guys who had nothing to do with us but had beef with us
because Slim was white, a rapper, and the newest member of Aftermath.
Unfortunately it had became a reality for someone; fortunately, not me. I
had met the guy once at a video shoot, and it really hit home for me. It
was depressing.That could have been me!? He was a soldier, a bodyguard,
a fellow brother in this business. He was down for his client, now he was
done. Death. At any given time this could happen to anybody. My goal
was to learn more about the situation. I didn’t want to be drawing any
conclusions or pointing the finger at anybody. I knew something like this
was going to happen.

The heat was so thick out there, with shit going on in California, I
knew it would only be a matter of time before something like that would
happen. I’m just glad we had been out of there in enough time. I said,
“Paul, you know what? We should not do any more recording out there,
man! This should be the last sign to remind you guys how unsafe it is
out there recording. ” Some fellow bodyguards out in LA told me the
shooting happened at about 11:30 p. m. Kurupt’s bodyguard was the first
to get shot. I guess there were some guys in the parking lot who were
trying to come into the studio, and the bodyguards wouldn’t let them
in. Unfortunately, the bodyguard wasn’t wearing a vest, and they shot
him five times in his upper body. They killed him—he died right there in
the parking lot. Supposedly, a second bodyguard or another person was
present and pushed a pop machine against the door as a barricade to keep
the guys from coming in.

Before all that happened, there were at least two more people who
got shot. Another person got shot a couple of times, and supposedly Daz
got grazed in his leg. I was like, Damn, I can’t believe this. I go look at MTV
news online, and lo and behold it’s telling the story just like that. And I
was shaken up by it, you know? I started looking at my situation once
again. Every time I reflected on my situation, I looked deeper than the
last. And I’m thinking, This shit is getting too damn serious, it’s getting
too damn deep. I mean, you can’t even prepare for something like that.
You can be so totally prepared and people can still catch you off guard—it
just goes to show you.

Paul and I decided after talking at that time, “Hey, let’s call Slim and
let him know, ” and Paul was like,“Yeah, he doesn’t know yet. Let’s call him
right now, so we can catch up with Slim and let him know what’s going
on. ” When we called Slim, he was like, “Damn! Are you serious?” and
we were like, “Yep, Kurupt’s bodyguard is dead, man. Three people have
been shot, with one dead, in California. And we just left. Remember, I was
telling you, man; it was a matter of time. The bodyguard wasn’t wearing
a vest. ” I said, “Man, on the real, we shouldn’t go back out there and do
any recording. ”I said, “Man, they’re on some different shit out there, man.
We cannot fuck with them cats. Let them do their thing. We’ve got many
studios right here in Detroit. There are a lot of people who fly from all
over to come here and record. Ya know, shit, just record here, man. ” And
for the first time, and one of the only times, all three of us agreed—we
agreed to the studio time being done in Detroit. If there was anything
Dre had to do, he would have to send the reels up, and if there was a
vocal part for Dre, they spoke about flying Dre in. And I’m thinking, Wow.
Okay, finally we’re all on the same page. I’m also thinking,Ya know, it’s sad
to have to have a bodyguard die to get them on the same page with me
because every revelation I have given them about this nonsense that had
been going on had come to pass. And finally I’m like the best thing since
fried chicken. Now, I know what I’m talking about. I always knew what I
was talking about. Unfortunately, someone had to pass away for him to
understand that or even respect what was going on.