Shady Bizzness: Life as Eminem's Bodyguard in an Industry of Paper Gangsters

by Williams, Byron

  I said, “Look, man, everybody knows you can hold your own, man. But you keep in mind that dead rappers don’t make any money, man. We are in over our heads here. We are sitting in the lion’s den. We need to go home and let this cool off for a couple of days. Paul has finally agreed to pay for the vests, and I am going home to get us some vests and try to bring a gun back. You can stay here if you want to. I am going home because that is the only place I can find my size vest right now. ” He took this like I just wanted to go home and see my family, so the conversation got on a personal level at this point. I said, “Look, man, don’t hate me because my home situation is better than yours.You need to go home and handle that problem, anyway. I can’t help it if my wife and kids want to and love to see me. Don’t be mad because my wife doesn’t tell me I have to stay in a hotel and that she doesn’t tell me that I can’t even drive the car that I bought. My family loves to see me, so of course I am going to see them when I go home, but I am going to get us some vests, and I will be right back out. ” I said I would try to bring a gun, but it would be difficult to do so since airport security knew whom I was affiliated with and had started to do random searches on me.

  I told him I wasn’t going to jeopardize my future and my life trying to smuggle an illegal gun in, though. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to bring back a weapon, but while I was gone, I arranged for an armed off-duty police officer whom we had worked with before to stay with Slim. The officer and I worked something out that when I came back he would have a 9 mm and a 12-gauge shotgun pump for me.At home, I had already made arrangements with Paul and Slim’s accountant to pay for the vests and all the hardware that came with them, like the batons and the pepper spray. I had the place I was purchasing the equipment from hold everything for me so that it would be a quick process, because I only had two days. I got to the place to pick up the equipment, and Paul hadn’t done one thing he was supposed to have done. All he had to do was fax the guy over the credit card number to pay for the equipment, but he didn’t. I went to the place with no knowledge of this and ended up wasting my time. I tried via every form of communication possible to contact Paul, but he never returned my messages. I had to go over his head and get authorization from the accountant’s assistant in order to get the equipment paid for. Later that day I got a call from Paul, and he was all pissed off because I went over his head, and I told him I did it because he wouldn’t respond to any of my messages, and if he would have done what he was supposed to do in the first place, none of this would have been necessary.

  Having to wait on Paul caused me to have to stay home another day. All Slim saw was that I took an extra day to be with my family, and he accused me of running from the Death Row situation. I said, “Look man, first of all, yes I spent time with my family, but my staying over was Paul’s fault for not taking care of his business the way he was supposed to. Second of all, I don’t have to try to prove that I’m a tough guy, that’s you trying to prove that. If I was going to run from Death Row, I would have busted the fuck up in Hawaii. I don’t believe you have the nerve to say that shit to me while I am always fighting your battles and knocking muthafuckas out, dislocating my shoulder protecting you! I don’t have to prove I’m a tough guy. Tough guys are dead men. Only the smart guys live. ”

  Back in LA, with our equipment, I felt safe. I wasn’t on no vigilante shit, I was on some survival shit, that’s the attitude I had being back out there. I felt like leaving my house, leaving from Detroit to California, I

  Arizona girls drop it like it’s hot! 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 wo
rk. 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.

  More Trouble Brewing 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.