"Shady Bizzness: " Life as Eminem's Bodyguard in an Industry of Paper Gangsters" (18 page)

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 obviously 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. ”

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

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. ”

By this time, he was mad and turning red, and my attorney said,
“Yeah, that would be the best way to handle this. He doesn’t want
anything to do with you, so you can talk to me and I will talk to him. ”
I continued reading, and I said, “Man, some of this looks like chicken
scratch. I know you don’t expect me to be able to read this.You are going
to have to rewrite this. ” So, he rewrote some things to make them more
legible, explaining that he wrote it in line at the grocery store. I finished,
shook Slim’s attorney’s hand, and apologized for not having been able to
meet him under better circumstances and left, knowing that I confused
the attorney good—because I was nothing like the monster that they
portrayed me to be—and that put a smile on my face. I knew that he
knew he was going to have a problem on his hands.

On the drive home from work, I was thinking about signing
those papers. Even though it was only a warning and not a felony or a
misdemeanor, it was my first time ever being in trouble with the law. My
dad always said to keep my name clean. I had tainted my family name
and embarrassed them for bringing a blemish to my clean name. I had
worked hard all my life and had been cheated. Everything was fine until I
hooked up with Slim, then things started going downhill. My man is bad
luck! I felt like it was time for me to make some personal changes, and
I knew when my group, the Wadsquad, blew up and Big Willz Records
got on the map, I was going to handle business a lot differently than they
had. It seemed like the game was set up for people to get screwed out of
money.

I knew that it was possible for everyone to be in accord and that
personal protection orders wouldn’t be necessary if people wouldn’t lie
about one another. I couldn’t believe he said I threatened his family. He
and I started as friends, but now we were enemies. None of that mattered,
though, because we were on opposite sides—his side, my side, the black
side, the white side. We used to be on the same team, and I blame the
division on Paul. I also hold Slim accountable for not being a big enough
or mature enough man to see Paul’s angle. Hopefully, one day he will
wake up, and when he does, Paul is going to catch it. That is if Slim
stays sober enough to see it. That’s why Paul keeps him fucked up on
Ecstasy and Vicodin, which he does through Mark, making Mark the road
manager and the supplier. It’s too wild for me. I don’t need it.