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

by Williams, Byron

  She was like, “Well, he’s not here, ” and I said to her, “No problem. Just give him the message and tell him to call me so that we can iron this out. ” I was trying to be a bigger man and do this the right way. It wasn’t easy for me to do, because some real grimy thugs would have taken his family hostage or killed somebody for fucking with their money and livelihood. At the point when I got out of the truck, I felt like I had allowed the Lord to come back in. I wasn’t a fool, and I wasn’t about to allow myself to be locked away for thirty years from my sons. I went over there to be logical and civilized, but if he wanted to be stupid, he was going to get dealt with. I was going to be leaving in one piece. After giving Kim the message, I saw Slim pulling up around the corner in his truck. I was like, “Oh, there he is right there, ” and she was like, “Well, Naz, be careful, he’s got a gun!” I said, “I am not worried about that because so do I! I was loyal to him and I just want to talk to him about getting my money back that he owes me. ” She was like, “You should get out of here! You should leave!” I told her I could take care of myself, but she still said, “You should leave!” so I said, “OK. ” I saw Slim sitting at the corner in his truck like a coward, because I could have been doing anything to his wife.

  Showdown When he saw me walking to my truck, he decided to pull up. I showed him my hands as a peace treaty. I told him that the phone conversation was sour and that we needed to handle this like men. He was red in the face and high and obviously nervous. I said we should be able to handle this without Paul interfering. He wasn’t listening. He was panicking and yelling, “What are you doing here?” and accusing me of trying to do something to his family. He was like, “Naz, I got a gun, and I’ll shoot you!” I was like, “I don’t give a fuck about that. I am the one who took you to apply for the CCW permit, if you haven’t forgotten!” He told me to get off his property, and I was like, “This isn’t even your property, this is your mother-in-law’s property. What you and Paul did to me was illegal anyway. I just came to talk to you in a civilized manner. Again, how can I get my money? Let’s do this without Paul being in the picture. Now, how can I get my money? Because I need my loot!” He was like, “Fuck you, Naz! Get off my property!” and he was just getting louder and louder and more nervous because we were the only two people outside at this point in an all-white neighborhood. I put my hand back in my pocket on my gun. He saw that what he was saying to me wasn’t bothering me at all. That was making him more nervous. He was getting louder, to draw the attention of potential witnesses. His neighbors started to come outside, and the louder he got, the quieter I got. The entire neighborhood saw him acting a fool. He was so frantic; he wasn’t trying to hear me out. I just said, “Man, you are not scaring me, ” and at this time he decided to pull up his shirt and brandish his weapon. I said, “Oh it’s like that, huh?” And he was like, “Yeah, the beef is on, nigga. ” And I was like, “Oh, I’m a nigga now, so it’s like that. ” I slowly started easing my gun out of my coat pocket.

  At that moment, I noticed Kim and Hailey on the porch crying, and that startled me back to reality. I thought about my family. Then I realized how it would look, being the only black guy in this all-white neighborhood with an exposed firearm, legal or not. When all these neighbors had congregated, I decided to leave. I said, “Slim, I love you, man. I loved you like a brother, and I don’t appreciate the foul treatment. ” I told him I came to him to talk. I held him down and looked out for him like he was my own son, and this is the way he wanted to act. I told him to get Paul out of his head, because he had him brainwashed. I walked slowly to my truck. I could see all of his neighbors watching to see what the commotion was about. I could see that he was hurt, because I was hurt; I am a big enough man to say that my feelings were hurt. It was sad that we had reached this point. I didn’t come over on any storm trooper shit. I came to talk. He escalated this to a level where it looked like I was the bad guy. I was glad I didn’t pull my gun, because I would have had to take his life. Kim and Hailey saved his life that day, whether he knows it or not. I saw the twenty-to-one ratio of whites to blacks, and this one black guy would have been doing some jail time. I decided to leave. I told him that he would be hearing from my lawyer the next time he heard from me. I drove away at about five miles per hour so the witnesses couldn’t say I sped off. That day the Lord was with us both because it could have been worse. I dread thinking about it.

  I replayed that scene in my head and tried to determine whether my moves had been wise or not. The one thing that kept coming to my mind was Slim’s last words to me. He said, “Naz, I thought you were my friend, man. I thought we were friends.You let me go out to California all by myself, and them muthafuckas could have got me! That ain’t loyalty. I thought you was my friend!”That’s how I knew he was hurt, too. I told him I was his friend but that he was taking it to the next level now. I decided to call the police to see if I could file a police report for him brandishing a weapon, not to get him locked up but just to have something on him so that he could know what it was like to feel uncomfortable about a situation. Little did I know that he and Paul had plotted using the phone message I made earlier that day. I found that out from the police department. They asked me if I was Byron, and they told me to go back over to Slim’s house because they just sent a car over there, and they needed to ask me some questions. I was like, “Naw, I told you the man just brandished a weapon and verbally threatened me. I’m not going back over there, but what I will do is come in there and file a police report. ” They were like, “OK. ” We both stayed in the suburbs which were 90 percent white, with their share of racial incidents, and I definitely got my share that day.

  The first thing I did after I got off the phone with the police was go home, doing the speed limit. I went in the basement and took my weapons off and took off my vest, and I was tripping on what all had happened. I regretted ever meeting this guy. This shit turned into something that I really didn’t have time to deal with. I wondered what lie Slim and Paul told on me. I told my wife that I was going to the police station to file a police report and why. She was tripping out, too. She said the sad part was that Slim was probably feeling guilty, because it wasn’t his doing, it was Paul’s. I got to the police station, and the police officers automatically took Slim’s side and didn’t want to hear my side of the story. They said they weren’t going to let me file a police report. I told them that they were violating my civil rights and that I would be back with my lawyer.They told me basically to do what I had to do and that Slim and Paul called them on a three way and filed a police report.They got a personal protection order based on the conversation I had with Slim and on the message I left on Paul’s voice mail. They lied and said I threatened to kill Slim’s wife and child. I admit, I threatened both Slim and Paul and made promises about what would happen if I didn’t get my money, but I didn’t involve their families—that was some bullshit. I now had a restraining order for me to stay away from Paul and Slim. Paul’s bitch-ass was in New York. And if the beef was on like Slim said, then why did he need a restraining order? And I couldn’t make a police report, so it was their word against mine. All the neighbors and Slim’s family were involved, and with Paul being a lawyer, he brought Slim’s wife and kids into it to hem me up. Slim bought into it even though he knew I didn’t say that shit.

  I went from being employed to being a criminal. And these white police officers believe this shit! And they violated my rights by not allowing me to file a police report.They said he committed no crime because it was his house. I told them that it was his mother-in-law’s house, and they said that since he had that address on his driver’s license, that made it his house. I told them that he broke three laws. Number one: No permit for carrying a concealed weapon. Number two: He had a concealed weapon in his car. Number three: He brandished a weapon and made a threat and asked them what they were going to do about it.They still wouldn’t let me file a police report. I told them I would be back with my lawyer because this was obvio
usly a black vs. white issue. They said, “Well, you are a big guy, ” and I said,“Being big has nothing to do with this, because if the shoe were on the other foot and I did any of those three things, I would be put in jail because I am black.Y’all know this, so now the whole thing is racial. ” I felt like I did when I was at Olivet College when a brother was accused of something he didn’t do. Now I was dealing with white trash and a Jew. It seemed like every time I trusted someone outside of my race, it blew up in my face. I was very disappointed in Paul and Slim for stooping to a level lower than I had ever seen any white man stoop to.

  They fabricated a lie saying that I was going to kill Kim and Hailey. I never threatened to kill anyone in my message, but they knew that was the only way they could get something on me to drag my name through the mud. I went twenty-nine years with a clean record until I met these two idiots, now I am a stalker and a killer. But I was their bodyguard to begin with! I still say they brought this situation on themselves because they were shady in handling their business. I didn’t cause this, I was part of the solution, and they made it racial. Just one more lie starts a racial incident. They won the battle with the money, but I was going to win the war. Rather than take their lives, I was going to expose them for what they were. They said they were not prejudiced, but they didn’t do anything to prove that. They showed themselves to be no different than any other white person who lies about blacks to shut them down. They can’t stop me, though, even though they did tarnish my name. I am not going to let anybody threaten me anyway. But when it’s white against black, and with Paul being a lawyer, the attitude is “white is right. ”

  My rights were violated, and since I couldn’t even file a police report, all I could do was hire a lawyer.

  Time to Reflect Decisions, decisions, decisions. I have realized that there is no such thing as a clean break. I felt really defeated. I couldn’t get any money— and I damn sure couldn’t get any justice. What could I get? I got a good lawyer. That’s what I did. I postponed my return to work to take care of my legal matters. I had to think like Paul to figure out how to get next to Paul and Slim. I knew Slim’s mom was suing him using Jeffrey Fieger (Dr. Kevorkian’s attorney), so I decided to call his office. I went and talked to one of his associates in person, and it was like a blessing in disguise because this gentleman had a lot of connections. When I first called this attorney and told him the situation, the first thing out of his mouth was that he knew Paul. I told him at that point that I couldn’t fuck with him. Then he said that he just knew who he was and that he had been in the business a long time and was also an entertainment lawyer. He said that he had an opportunity to manage Eminem, but at the time he had too much on his plate to do it.

  Paul went to him pumping him for info, and he said he knew all about Paul. I told him the situation and that they owed me some money. I told him the whole story and why I didn’t want to work for them anymore. The attorney was surprised that I had a label and groups, and he told me he was once a promoter for Universal, and we hit it off right off the bat. I went home and evaluated the situation, and I realized that the Lord really does work in mysterious ways. He was a criminal and civil and entertainment lawyer. He had met Paul and knew he was an asshole. The next time we spoke, we found out that the lawyer for the other side, Neil, was his best friend. I couldn’t believe that. Mike called Neil right there on the phone, and they were talking back and forth about the case.

  I was a little uncomfortable with it, with the two lawyers being friends and all, but I figured if my man could get my money back for me then I would use him. If it got dirty and grimy, I would just have to switch attorneys if my man got too friendly with this other guy. I kind of just sat back and observed things. He got off the phone, and as he continued to talk to me, he stated that he and Slim’s attorney were Jews. I immediately thought I was done because one thing I can say about Jews is that they stick together—they are a unit—and I didn’t want that. On this occasion, I wanted them to fight, for my sake, to get my money back and to get my name clean. Mind you, at this point I didn’t want to sue Slim or Paul. I just wanted to get my name clean, get the five grand that they owed me, and get the protection order dropped. That’s all I cared about, and that way I could move on with my life. I took a week off work to get this together, as far as the lawyer gathering all the information that

  The crew hanging out in Paris, France. he needed from me. Basically, this attorney and I were talking about two things at once: this case and the music business. I told him that the music business was on hold now because this was about my life and my name. I wanted my name cleared and the money that they owed me, and he understood that. The attorney for the other side was gung ho and being a total asshole. He acted like he had something to prove because he was defending a celebrity, and he wanted to put all his balls into it.

  So my attorney told me that this could go one of two ways. The quieter of the two appealed to me because I didn’t want the publicity to be a burden on my family. Paul also lied on his personal protection order, stating that I threatened one of his assistants, as well, which was an absolute fabrication.The attorney and I learned a lot about each other and the roles that we would have to play in this case. I told the attorney the truth about everything that happened and that they were trying to make me look like the bad guy. He tried to find out if there had been any bad blood between us previously, and I told him no, other than Paul not liking me and shooting down all of my ideas.

  He told me that he appreciated my honesty because he already heard the violent message that I left on Paul’s voice mail, which was inadmissible in the state of Michigan. He also told me that I would be served with the restraining order, which would attempt to prevent me from purchasing a weapon, but they were too late, because I already had done that. That was Paul’s way of trying to keep me down since I didn’t work for them any longer, and trying to cut me off at the knees, like I couldn’t stand alone in this and didn’t have anyone to support me or hold me up. I was standing by myself, whereas I used to find myself standing with Slim, but, oh well, some things never change—same shit, different flies.

  On January 4, 2000, my attorney called me into his of fice and introduced me to his partner, a young black guy. He had to be on the up-and-up because he was a black man in partnership with a Jew. I felt comfortable with him and preferred him to represent me in this case and to just use the other attorney for entertainment-related business. He told me that I would be meeting Slim’s attorney but to watch out because he could be an arrogant asshole and would definitely try to get my goat. The whole purpose of this was to meet him and to be served with the papers, in order to avoid some strange person I didn’t know coming to my home. We met at a restaurant, and I could tell as soon as we walked in that Slim’s attorney had been talking to everyone at the bar. I was the only black male there—and the biggest person in the restaurant. As we approached the bar, everyone started whispering. I could tell by the cold looks and the snickering that everyone knew, and I said to myself, “He ain’t shit. ” I already didn’t care for him, but he put the icing on the cake. He was just an attorney trying to be big time, but he was sharp. I didn’t let him get to me, though, and that pissed him off. I probably pissed him off more than he did me. He tried to serve me right there in front of everyone. I told him that we needed to go in the back and sit down so that I could read the papers first. My attorney said, “Yeah, man, I told you we didn’t want to do this so impersonally. ” We went to the back and sat down, and the guy proved he was an asshole right off the bat. He made it known that he was serving me in this manner as a favor to his friend, my attorney, and that he normally didn’t do this. I thought to myself, You’re not doing this as a favor, you are doing this because this is the way it’s set up. But I didn’t say anything to him at that point because I knew he was just trying to test my temper and get me angry.

  Slim’s attorney kept babbling about how he was doing this as a favor, and he was waiting on me to
say something. I just looked at him with this cold blank stare, and he presented me with the papers. He told me how he was going to have me served by a process server, one supposedly bigger than me, which I doubted, but even so it didn’t matter because I don’t care about size. If the guy had business to take care of, fine—he had business to take care of—it didn’t affect me one bit. He said that to see if it would piss me off, and I just said, “Anyway, man, you got something for me to read?” He presented me with a warning of the personal protection order that I would get, which alleged that I threatened to kill Slim and his wife and kid. I said, “Well, that’s what he says, but before I sign anything I have to read it. ” As I was reading it, the lawyer was talking to me steadily, and said, “Well, can you stop reading for a minute. I’m trying to finish talking to you. ” I said, “Look, man, I’m on my way to work, and I have things to do today. I’m going to read this! And when I finish, if it’s to my liking, and when my attorney sees this, I’m going to sign it. I can do two things at once, so you can keep talking. ” He said, “That’s kind of rude for you to read while I’m talking to you, ” and I said, “Look, man, I don’t have anything to say to you, you need to talk to my attorney. I have nothing to say to you. ”