"Shady Bizzness: " Life as Eminem's Bodyguard in an Industry of Paper Gangsters" (19 page)

I’m back in the real world. Man, I tell you it’s rough. I had gotten
caught in the hype when the whole time I was trying to avoid that trap.
That’s the power of the music game. It was good to be back to work, back
to my family and friends, my wife and my children. You can’t put a value
on that. That’s something that you can’t relive and have to take for what
it’s worth. The hardest part about coming back home was dealing with all
the questions about what it was like being on the road. I was also dealing
with this hatred I felt for Paul and Slim, and I had to check myself because
I almost got to the point where it was becoming a racial issue on my part,
because I was beginning to look at Jews and white people differently.This
wasn’t the first time I had been done wrong by whites lying to cover up
something else. But then I said to myself, Well, this is life, and people are
going to try to screw you over no matter what color they are, especially
in this music game. They took it to that level, and I figured I had to be a
bigger person than them, rather than fall into the little traps that they
were laying for me.

Being back at work was cool, but unfortunately when I got back, I
wasn’t able to get the position that I was up for and had to work on the
line. In fact, I got demoted, and part of the reason for that was jealousy.
People who worked with me saw me on television while I was off and
were jealous. I was put in the lowest position at the plant, and it was
humiliating. I’ve often wished that things had worked out between Slim
and me so I wouldn’t have to deal with that humiliation. But that was a
pride factor, and pride can get in the way of dignity. My dignity had been
affected because I went from being a platinum-selling artist’s bodyguard
to a person who threw coil springs into boxes. People would walk by and
laugh and joke, but it was OK because I knew I had a wife and kids to
support.

The supervisors would treat me like shit, and the one who did it the
most was a Jewish guy. I tried to look past that, but every time I heard the
word “Jewish, ” it would bother me. Finally, I decided to grow up and see
past that, and I kept telling myself not to let the actions of one man deter
me. Anyway, they had me doing the shittiest job in the plant one day, and
I was listening to the radio, and lo and behold who comes on but Dr. Dre
and Slim, on one of my favorite tracks from the “Dr. Dre 2001” album,
“Forgot About Dre. ” One of my coworkers tried to push my buttons, but
I didn’t let him. I was a little envious at that moment, but I decided to
not waste my energy being bitter. I said to myself, OK, I am an average
Joe again and that’s cool. I’ve just got to adjust. It seemed like that DJ was
rubbing that song in my face because he just kept playing it over and over
in a mix. It reminded me of all the shit I had been through with them, the
good times and the bad.

I even took a month and a half off from working on this book
because I went through a transition. I decided to do something about
it, so I got with one of my artists, Acapella, and she and I talked about
doing a song called “Shady Bizzness. ” I wanted her to put my thoughts
in a song. I got with Mike, from the Beat Pushers, and he hooked up the
beat. Coincidentally, the beat he hooked up was one that I presented to
Slim for his new album. Slim liked it, but he wasn’t feeling it. I used the
song as therapy to get this off my chest since, due to the restraining order,
I had no way of communicating my feelings to him. I couldn’t mail him
anything or speak to him. It hurt me because we had been friends at one
time, but Paul sealed that fate, and Slim fed into it, so he was just as guilty.
I dealt with all this and used my music as therapy in dealing with the fact
that I had no money because Paul and Slim had revoked my pay.

When they did that it put all my business plans on hold. You may
ask what can you do with $6, 000, but the way I had everything budgeted
out, there was plenty I could have done. With the plans put on hold,
though, it did give me a chance to finish the song “Shady Bizzness, ” and
the book, which will hopefully lead into a screenplay one day. This is how
I got through my feelings, and it felt good; it felt like I was making some
progress. I was dealing with the financial problems because I had drained
my mutual funds and my savings, and we were still behind. It got to a
point where we almost had to file bankruptcy because of the money that
we were owed from Paul and Slim. We had already written checks against
that money, and that put me in a position where I had to work overtime,
which my employers weren’t offering a lot of.

My wife was also under a lot of stress. In the turn of a day, I went
from being comfortable to damn near poverty level—and I had taken care
of these guys! I talked to my attorney, Barton Morris, Jr. , a young brother
about thirty-two years of age, and convinced him to take on my case at 33
percent commission. Mike had said he would represent me for free, but I
couldn’t even get a return call from him. I think, with him being friends
with Paul’s lawyer, they somehow had convinced him not to even deal with
me. I don’t want to get into why I suspect that, but I think it has to do with
them both being Jewish and not really wanting to step on each other’s toes.
I can understand that, but I just wish he had told me the deal instead of
just cutting me off the way he did. Anyway, Mike decided to allow Barton to
take on my case, and he is a great man for that because he didn’t have to do
that. Barton has been doing good work, and it has made me feel like some
progress was being made, but at the same time I realized that getting the
money owed me was going to be a long, drawn-out process. I was OK with
that as long as I could sue to get my money back.

I had to deal with the repercussions of resigning from working with
Slim. I did have the urge to call him to see if we could make things right,
but I would look at my kids and think of the way he treated me in the
past and realize that I would be a fool to go back for more of the same ill
treatment. They screwed me over once, so they would do it again. Dignity,
pride, and prayer helped me through that. God really guided me toward
the right path on this decision, and in dealing with this rebound situation
and trying to get the bills paid. By this time, Slim had won a Grammy,
so a considerable amount of time had passed. I had forgiven him, but I
hadn’t forgotten. I wanted to show them that you don’t do good people
bad. You don’t do anyone bad, for that matter. I guess I had to act a fool
on this guy to finally get some respect. Money isn’t every thing, and true
wealth is family. My father always taught me that. He told me that you
can go all around the world, but if you don’t have your family with you
then everything is worthless. I really had learned and believed that at this
point.

I spent my time in the studio working on the song “Shady Bizzness”
and thinking about getting my label back together because people in my
group had stopped calling. I guess that since I quit working for Slim,
they felt as if I had blown their chances for success. In all actuality, there
was no opportunity there. You have to create your own opportunities.
Unfortunately, we had a couple of weak links there. I had now weeded
out who was real and who was fake among my crew—or I should say
they weeded themselves out. I expected more of them to be around,
especially during this time, when their support was really needed, but
unfortunately they left and went looking for another bandwagon to jump
on. I kept myself busy keeping contact with the connections I had made
on the road and keeping in touch with the remaining true members of
the Wadsquad.

We held meetings and talked about how the situation with Slim
affected us, and they understood that we were in the same position we
were in before we met them, and that we just had to keep moving forward.
I could see the bitterness of the Wadsquad toward Slim, but I told them
that was my beef and they shouldn’t worry about it. But they saw it as a
family affair type of thing, like by Slim messing with me he was messing
with them, and they took it personally.They were basically supportive, and
I decided to use Slim as my motivation for success in the music business.
It was negative that he had done me wrong, but there was no better way
to get revenge than with my own success.

A lot of things were now in the open, but Slim had fabricated a lot
of lies. That boy was not born in Detroit, so he is not from Detroit. He
is always hollering trailer park, but there are no trailer parks in Detroit.
He is from a trailer park in Marine City, about twenty-eight miles into
the country. Even his own crew members questioned his honesty about
where he was from. He had skills anyway, so why did he lie? He may
have lived in Detroit a couple of months, and he may have even worked
in Detroit, but he is not from Detroit. Now I see why his own mother
stepped forward the way that she did regarding a lot of the things that
he did and said. I don’t really know a lot about his relationship with his
mother, but I am sure that there is truth in both of their stories. He has
everyone thinking that he came up in Detroit a little white boy and fought
his way to platinum status, but that’s not the truth. He has skills, no one
can take that from him, but the important thing is to be true to yourself
and to your fans, but it’s a little too late for that now.That’s the same thing
that Vanilla Ice did. Slim, you contradicted yourself. You grew up in a
trailer park like you said, but there are no trailer parks in Detroit.

When I
first started writing this book, it was out of revenge. My
father always told me that if you dig one hole for someone to fall in, you
may as well dig two because you are going to need one of them for your
self. I always kept that in mind as I was writing this book. At the same
time, the book of Proverbs tells us that there is a time to fight and a time
to walk away. I walked away so I could fight, because I was in a no-win
situation. I wasn’t fighting physically; I was hitting them in their pockets
and in their fan base with the truth. I was telling it the way it happened.
This is nothing personal, Paul and Slim. This is the real deal.

Now that I have closure and am using Slim as my motivation for
success, I finally put my plaques on the wall.They remind me of everything
I went through, and one day they are going to be worth some money
because he is going to do something stupid like OD, and I am going to
have to lock them up in a vault to keep them from being stolen. I do wish
them both the best though, and I pray for them often. I pray for them to
change their ways, because there are a lot of people out there whom they

owe money to and a lot of folks out there whom they disrespected. There
are a lot of folks out there who want to hurt them. They may not know it,
but there are quite a few people out there, on both coasts, who want to do
something to these guys. I hope and pray for their safety because they are
going to need it.

I did the song and the book. People have called me crazy for doing
these things, but that’s OK because I am crazy. To make it in the music
business you have to have a gimmick or you have to have talent, one or the
other. It just so happens we have both in my crew. I decided to put the song
“Shady Bizzness” out on the Wadsquad EP to let the world know how Slim
is.This is also my way of talking to him since I can’t talk to him personally,
due to the restraining order, so I plan to use mass communication to get
my points across. My attorney and I have gotten together to try to get Paul
and Slim to come to court, and, not surprisingly, they have canceled every
time. Paul and Slim didn’t expect me to fight for my money, so of course
they were intimidated. Rather than face me like men they chose to flee,
like they usually do. They had hoped for my money to run out, so that I
would no longer be able to afford my attorney. By the blessing of God,
however, my attorney agreed to take my case on a contingency basis, so
I have nothing but time. In fact, my attorney charged more than theirs,
but I was able to negotiate a feasible deal, and Paul and Slim couldn’t
understand that. They realized that they weren’t the only ones with some
connections and some pull. They were obviously nervous, and I loved it.

The whole month of February, Paul and Slim kept canceling court
dates. Finally, the judge subpoenaed them to come to court. At this point,
Slim and Paul talked to their attorney to try to cut a deal to drop the gun
provision, so that I could keep my gun permits, but to keep the restraining
order in effect until they got their personal items back. I told them no
deal. I wanted my money. My attorney made a bold move by calling for
a hearing, but Slim knew that if he showed up, the tables could turn on
him for brandishing a weapon, and he could be prosecuted for a firearm
felony. Paul, Slim and their attorney knew this and knew that they were
the odd men out now. They knew they had fucked up when they lied and
said I threatened their families. I never threatened to kill anybody.

I was on the Internet checking my e-mail and, much to my surprise,
I got a return e-mail from XXL magazine. They wrote that they were
interested in hearing more of my story on Eminem. I got in touch with
the assistant editor, Vanessa Satten. She told me they were interested in
doing an exclusive interview about this book, which I agreed to do in
exchange for a contact to help me publish this book, a close-up story on
this book, and an article on the Wadsquad with pictures. She said she
would present that to her boss. I told her that Slim and his manager, Paul,
hate this magazine with a passion and that they denounce XXL worldwide
everywhere they go and that Slim even makes a remark in his raps about
using XXL as toilet paper. I told her to tell her boss this information as
well. Later, she called me back and told me that they agreed to negotiate
what we discussed and to have my lawyer take care of the legal end of the
deal. We agreed as well, and we’re going to be doing the story. The plan
was to drop it during Slim’s second album release.

On March 22nd, Paul and Slim canceled another court date, so we
decided to play some hardball. I had my lawyer subpoena Kim, Slim’s wife,
to be one of my witnesses. It would work out perfectly because there was
rumor of divorce in early March. She would have no problem taking my
side because, allegedly, she was trying to take him for all he had any way.
When Paul and Slim saw Kim’s name right next to one of his mistresses’
name on the witness list, they freaked out, their attorney freaked out, and
they didn’t know what to do. Immediately, they wanted to make a deal
and pay the money back that they owed me.They knew that we would get
Kim to open up, and when we were finished providing her with certain
information, she would take him for even more money. They wanted to
play hardball, so we brought out the aluminum bats! And we didn’t strike
out! So, Slim and Paul went back to the dugout.

On March 29th, Slim and Paul reneged once again on coming to
court, which was to be expected. They did agree to pay me $4, 300, which
was my Christmas bonus and a week’s pay, but actually they owed me
more than that. By this time it was more than the money, though. It was
about dignity and self-worth and showing them that they weren’t the only
ones who knew people in high places. They may have had big money,
but you don’t always have to have big money to fight battles. It is ironic
that the name of Paul’s company is Goliath Artists, but we all know what
happened to Goliath—David killed him with a slingshot. I felt like I just
killed Goliath. I felt like I had a new lease on life, and I learned a lot
from working with these guys. I learned a lot in a positive manner but I
learned even more in a negative manner. On a positive note, Shady Tours
taught me to stay busy and to use my connections. That’s how you keep
your name out there and never rest. On a negative note, Slim and Paul
didn’t take care of their people. When the Wadsquad arrives, they will be
well cared for. You shouldn’t cut yourself short in taking care of people,
but those guys were just greedy. I learned how to be driven and to have
motivation. It’s always been business, but Paul and Slim made it personal.
I am keeping it business.

I knew it would only be a matter of time before Eminem would
influence Slim Shady to get Marshall Mathers in trouble. It’s amazing to
be on the other side of the fence watching Slim self-destruct. I’ve always
known that Kim would be the downfall of his career. Slim had seen all the
signs but refused to acknowledge them. Slim once told me about a dream
he had. The dream involved him being arrested in a public place for an
unknown reason, while Kim pranced around in a very, very short skirt
that showed her panties. During that time, Slim had suspected Kim of
cheating. Slim actually had a premonition of his fate. As we all know, Slim
was arrested for pistol-whipping a guy for kissing his wife in the parking
lot of a nightclub.

Slim was given a tip that his wife was cheating on him, and he
should see for himself. Lo and behold, he came, he saw, and he whipped
some ass. Unfortunately, his jealous rage earned him a felonious assault
charge and another charge for brandishing a firearm. Both are punishable
up to nine years.Twelve hours prior to that event, Slim had pulled his gun
and threatened to shoot a member of ICP at a car audio shop.

A few days later, he was arraigned on both gun charges for two
separate events. My questions were: Why are you still brandishing a
weapon? Why are you carrying an empty gun? How many more people
will you brandish your weapon in front of before you’re shot? The news
of his downfall was a disappointing event. It was obvious that he had no
one in his corner to consult him or control him. That’s what I did best
for Slim. I kept him out of trouble constantly. I felt some guilt seeing him
in hand cuffs. I should have been there. Slim made the statement that he
carries a gun due to the absence of his bodyguard! I thought I’d be glad to
see him fall, but all I could think about was how he was blowing it. After
all the bullshit and misery he put me through, I was concerned about his
future. At the rate he’s going, he’s headed for jail or the morgue. Think,
Slim! Your life should be lived for Hailey’s benefit. The media has labeled
him a “joker, ” a “Tupac wanna be, ” and a “lyrical tough guy. ”

Well, Kim has
finally earned the limelight she wanted, but through
a mug shot. Apparently, Kim and Slim were tussling that night in the
parking lot. When the police came to arrest Marshall, she attacked the
cops. She was booked on disorderly conduct. The next day, Kim released
a statement to the media about staying out of their private life. She also
made a public plea that she stands by her man. RIGHT! Slim always
said, “There’s no such thing as bad press. ” Slim Shady is the talk of the
town across the world. He is bigger than Elvis right now. Many people
wonder, Will he last? Will he be another rapper dead for popping off
at the mouth for something he shouldn’t have said? Will he OD like
Elvis? I think neither. I believe he’s going to kill Kim for REAL, or she
going to kill him during one of their nasty spells. Then again, God may
intervene and call Slim to be a preacher! Now that would be a sight to
see! (Minister Marshall Mathers, aka Triple “M”). I worry about Kim and
Slim and hope their marriage doesn’t end in tragedy. Hailey needs them
both to be mature parents.

Financially, Slim has possibly dug himself a hole. The guy that he
pistol-whipped is suing Slim for an undisclosed amount. The victim said
he feared for his life as Slim threatened to kill him. I estimate the victim
will sue for $25 million. PAY UP!!! It’s a sad day when a guy takes your
wife and your money. Well, that definitely puts his mom at the back of the
lawsuit line. It’s probably a good thing I did resign, because I wouldn’t
have gotten another raise. I guess you really do reap what you sow!

Slim got away with
flashing his gun during OUR confrontation
because the police were acting like fans instead of cops. Think of how
he shortchanged his staff for security, producers, and arrangements.
We’re talking thousands of dollars people haven’t been paid, especially in
production. God doesn’t like ugly, because you’ll pay, one way or another!
It’s weird to see Slim’s songs come to life in a timely manner, especially
the song “Kim. ” This is the track where he raps about killing her for
cheating. Then there’s the song “Criminal, ” where he likens his words to
criminal behavior. Unfortunately, his actions spoke louder than his words
when he earned two felony firearm assault charges. Congratulations!

Marshall Mathers had put himself in an uncompromising position
(no pun intended) with the homosexual community. Slim went out of his
way to bash the gay and lesbian community through violent expressions.
Michigan gay activists fired back, trying to have his music pulled from the
shelves. They felt that Slim was encouraging teens to batter and possibly
murder gays and lesbians.These gay activists wanted Slim to feel their pain.

This is an of
ficial announcement that Slim Shady has won the
beef with XXL. On June 20, 2000, XXL nervously dropped my exclusive
inter view about Slim. They’d been shaken down! XXL said, “We think
Slim Shady and his entourage may rush our office with trouble. This
concerns our employees!” I wrote it off as a unique situation because
XXL started the beef by calling Slim a “culture stealer. ” Slim retaliated
by dissing the magazine globally. I worked diligently for six months on
this exclusive with XXL, and they bailed a week before the release. I took
it as a minor setback and realized that this was huge to XXL. Obviously,
they couldn’t handle a history-making story of this magnitude. I must say,
I was disappointed when XXL dropped my story, especially after doing
leads (“Remember, we got a big bodyguard!”). Blacks don’t get many
chances to stand together against a white powerhouse without someone
selling out. Next time, stick to your guns! Slim does!

Lastly, Slim’s fans have put him as their savior. A god? He has cult
followers that threatened the prosecuting attorney with death threats if
he was prosecuted for his gun charges. The prosecutor took the threats
seriously and moved his family to safety. Utterly amazing! They can hurt
Slim more than they can help. As time goes on and his career continues
to grow, I’ll be looking forward to the shocking news he hasn’t made yet.
This is just the beginning!

Kim attempted suicide on July 7, 2000, at 11:30 pm. , after allegedly
confronting Slim Shady about my book, “Shady Bizzness. ” When Kim
confronted Slim at his concert in Auburn Hills, he apparently didn’t deny
the claims. She then rushed home and attempted suicide by slashing her
wrist with five superficial wounds. Slim Shady’s mother was quoted in a
tabloid as saying, “Kim planned the suicide attempt for attention. Nobody
attempts suicide in front of their family. ” Rumor has it that Momma
Mathers is writing a song about her son, Marshall. Hmmm. . . ! I wonder
where she got that idea.

Finally, the dreaded question! Did Slim sleep with Christina
Aguilera? No! Absolutely not! The one time he tried to approach Christina
she shut him down. That happened at the MTV Europe Awards in 1999.
However, Christina thought he was cute. Slim apparently had crushes on
Christina and Britney Spears. Obviously Slim’s feelings were hurt when
the ladies didn’t respond. Therefore, he lashed out at them in “The Real
Slim Shady” video.

As far as N’SYNC and The Backstreet Boys—he had plenty of
opportunities to fight them.We often stayed in the same hotels with them
when they were in New York, LA, and sometimes Europe. Slim never
made any complaints to me about N’SYNC or The Backstreet Boys. How
can one scrawny MC kick five or more guy’s asses at once?