"Shady Bizzness: " Life as Eminem's Bodyguard in an Industry of Paper Gangsters" (7 page)

limo driver by radio about what had gone on and asked him to pull up.
Meanwhile, I was trying to get Slim together. I was bringing him out of a
back room so we could avoid contact with the Death Row guys again. We
got word that they were looking for us. They were definitely looking to
start some shit. Later, we found out that they had beef with Slim because
of Slim’s affiliation with Dre. Dr. Dre previously had a beef with Death
Row. To them, Slim was the next best thing, the new kid on the block,
the most vulnerable. At this point, I was really trippin’ because I didn’t
have any backup. Dre and his security did their thing, and they bounced.
I couldn’t blame them because they really hadn’t had any face-to-face
dealings that night. I focused on staying calm and not being nervous. If
they see you nervous, they will really bother you. I finally got Slim out of
there. I saw the limo pull up—then pull off—leaving me, Paul, and Slim
standing in the front. The driver had been told to move, that he couldn’t
sit there. He had only been sitting there like thirty seconds!

The red carpet security didn’t listen to the driver’s explanation
of what had happened. Then words were being exchanged between the
outside security and myself. They didn’t care that a man’s life could be in
danger. Due to the traffic, it took the limo driver ten minutes to go around
the block and come back to us. During this ten minutes, Paul was turning
red because he was so scared, and Slim was freaking out trying to figure
out why they would want a piece of him. I was trying to watch my back and
Slim’s. I tried to keep him calm. Slim kept saying, “We’re fucked, man!
We’re fucked!” Paul humbly said, “Naz, I think you were right, we should
have gotten those vests. ” I said, “Paul, we discussed this weeks ago. I told
you we needed vests and that I would need some additional help! You
shut down every idea that I presented to you. Please don’t even bring up
the woulda-coulda-shoulda. I already made this clear to you. ” Paul and
Slim didn’t understand the importance of security. I think that was the
first time they really realized it. Finally, the car came back.

Slim was mad as hell. He was pacing, drawing attention to himself,
saying, “Man, these guys are gonna come up and shoot us right here on
the spot!” I mean, he was really freakin’ out, and I was trying to calm
him down. “If a paparazzi sees this and doesn’t know what is going on,
they could make it a bigger issue than it is. It’s big right now, but don’t
get the media involved. When the limo finally arrives, let’s just get in the
limo, then wave at your fans, and let’s bounce, man. Let’s get the fuck
out of here! When the limo pulls up, we’ll all jump in. ” Proof got in the
limo and said, “Yo, Naz man, you was right about those vests, man. ” Now
everyone agreed with me—afterward—that we should have gotten those
bulletproof vests for the 1999 Source Awards out in LA. It felt so good to
get in that limo and pull out alive. When you’re on someone else’s turf,
you don’t really know what’s going down, you don’t really know how folks
are laying. I was just out there doing a job. I had no knowledge of what we
were dealing with.

That was the
first confrontation we had with Death Row Records. I
must say, that was a unforgettable moment. I didn’t know what was going
to happen next. The only thing that kept playing through my mind was
the shooting of Biggie Smalls in California, then the shooting of Tupac
Shakur in Vegas. You never know how things are going to turn out. I have
to say that made me real nervous, but it me made smarter.

I quickly learned about LA, California, and the dress code.You hear
about things on the news, you hear a lot of hearsay, you hear a lot of stuff
on people’s records, and, from what I understand, the red means Bloods
and the blue means Crips. Being from Detroit, none of that shit really
registers with me. I don’t follow none of that, but when you are in their
territory you have to respect it; it’s real and you got to respect it. I changed
my wardrobe during my two-month stay in LA—there was no red, and
there was no blue. I always found myself wearing a lot of gray, a lot of
black, and a lot of beige. It’s a damn shame it has to be like that but that’s
how it is when you go out to Cali! You have to pack accordingly, especially
in the field of work that I’m in. I’m around a lot of those gangstas all the
time. Whatever their affiliation was, I respected that. Being from Detroit,
we don’t get off into gang banging.

After the Source Awards, we went to the studio; Slim wanted to
do some recording. He tried to do some recording, but he couldn’t really
focus. Slim was shaken up from the Death Row situation. First thing I
did when we got back to the studio usually was read a book. I had some
downtime when we were at the studio, and I usually read during that
period. I felt very ignorant about what was going on, and nobody in the
business out there really wanted to talk about the history of Death Row,
plus the history of the gang life. I took the initiative to find out, because
you can’t really be out there and not know what’s going on. I was basically
already sitting in California naked, meaning with no guns and no vest. I
was basically out there with my wits and the Lord’s Prayer. That’s what
kept me alive—the Lord! I was reading my Bible and working my wits.

I have plenty of street smarts.You can’t go out there and disrespect
their culture, because if you do you are definitely going to have some
problems. I had a sleepless night, spent trying to figure out what was
going on and what was going to happen, and grasping the fact that I was
in the middle of some bullshit that I didn’t really know anything about.
Regardless, I was in the middle of it and had to deal with it. The next
morning, I got up bright and early, went and had some breakfast, and
found a bookstore and bought this book called
Have Gun Will Travel
by
Ronin Ro. Basically, this book was built on interviews from Death Row
members, members of Interscope, and people from Loud Records and
tells of their encounters with Death Row. It tells about the rise and fall of
Death Row Records, about Bad Boy, and also about the killing of Tupac
Shakur and Biggie Smalls. It tells about the good times and the bad times.
Basically, it covers about ten years of hip-hop, and tells how Death Row
was formed, how Suge used to help out artists who were getting screwed
over, and how he went in and straightened everything out. It mentioned a
lot of good things and a lot of bad things, and it answered every question
I had and made things a lot clearer to me. What I realized was, OK, this is
why Interscope acts like this with this group of guys, and this is why this
guy is in the studio doing this and so on and so forth. I felt like I wasn’t
completely in the dark anymore, but I knew I had a lot to learn. It took
me about a week to read this book, and I read a lot of chapters over and
over to get a feel for how these Death Row guys think. Being from Detroit,
there’s a different way of thinking.You have to respect their mentality out
there.You might not like it or agree with it, but you are going to respect it.
You must abide if you are going to survive.

I did some research on California gangsters. I studied their
approach. I don’t know if this is factual, but from what I’ve read and what
I’ve seen, they always approach a person with some conversation first, to
see where your head is at and to see where your heart is. And the next
time they are on some intimidation shit, and if you aren’t feeling what
they are saying, then God help you. And I can honestly say staying in my
Bible and staying focused helped me through it. No disrespect to Death
Row, I am just explaining the situation that I went through with them. If
I got beef with anybody, it’s with Paul and Slim for paying me $185 a day
to be dealing with that shit, plus doing extra work that I wasn’t supposed
to be doing. Now you tell me if $185 is worth all that—hell no—not in
anybody’s life. Being certified and qualified at that time, I said,Yo, it’s time
for me to act a little bit quicker to get some more things under my belt,
making things happen. So, at this point in time, we were a little shook
up, and we were nervous because we had to stay out in LA. I brought the
situation to the table to Jimmy Iovine and told him what was going on,
but he blew the whole thing off like, “Oh, those guys, they’re always doing
that. They’re just fucking with you guys, they’re just trying to intimidate
you. Don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to them. I’ll tell Suge to tell those guys
to stop fucking with you because Suge is not sending those guys to do
that. ” I said, “Even if he’s not, the point is they are from Death Row
Records, and they are fucking with us. I mean damn, man, how are we
supposed to take that? We’re just out here so Slim can finish his album. ”
I was just trying to get this man back to his daughter and his wife safely,
that was my whole task.

I just kept getting frustrated because everybody kept blowing it off
like, “Aw, man, don’t worry about it. It isn’t no big deal, they do this shit all
the time. ” I’m like, “Yo, I’m not about to take no chances like that, man!
I can’t afford to take no chances without knowing what’s going on. ” So
shortly after that we went home for about a week or so to kind of let things
cool off out there, and Slim did some recording here at home. I was home
and really looking at this situation and I’m like, Yo, man, this situation
is really getting crazy man, this shit is getting crazy! I don’t want to be
involved in something this crazy. I’m just trying to make some money;
I’m just trying to get my label on. I was trying to get the Wadsquad out
by doing something independent myself. I didn’t realize how hard it was
going to be to get that done.

During our stay in California, I decided to go to school. I
figured
with all the drama building, I better be prepared for the worst. Every
morning, from 8:00 a. m. to 1:00 p. m. , I attended a law enforcement
academy that certified me in executive protection. This process took two
months to complete. This was done on my own out of loyalty to Slim.
This certification would allow me to carry a concealed weapon legally
throughout the US. I was certified to kill, but only if my life or my
client’s life were in endangered. I was granted arrest powers, as well. In
doing this, I felt that my stock should go up and requested a raise. Paul
took the liberty to thank me for my efforts in protecting Slim and then
denied the raise. They even denied reimbursement for my certification.
I just continued to roll with the punches. My job went beyond being his
bodyguard. I was his part-time assistant, part-time accountant, chauffeur,
mentor, main supporter, and friend. I went beyond the call of duty. I was
the only one that had some control over his negative impulses. However,
as he blew up, so did his head. Paul did his best to keep up the confusion
between Slim and
I. I was partially used as Paul’s fall guy until I wised up. There were times
in California where I would spend my own money on Slim, because Paul
and Slim’s accountant didn’t want him to have money. And when Slim did
have money, he would lose it all. He’d lose his head if it wasn’t attached.
Over a period of time, Slim lost about $1, 200, three cell phones, and a few
verses to songs—and it usually fell back on me to do the searching. Overall,
Slim was a decent guy at times. He would try to sign every autograph until
everyone was satisfied. There were times when he seemed human. For
example, he wanted to watch Ice-T perform from the crowd, even though
he was on the same tour. I made it happen. He was like little kid at a concert
for the first time. Nobody bothered him. There were difficult times, like
when I refused to take part in his drug activities. I never liked him using
the drugs, because I didn’t want the responsibility of notifying the next
of kin if he OD’d. A few years ago, I was a drug treatment counselor and,
from my analysis, Slim had all the symptoms of an abuser. It’s no secret. I
can recall one day during the Warp Tour where he took fourteen different
drugs. It started with Ecstasy, then liquor, Vicodin, Valium, shrooms,
marijuana,Tylenol 3,Whip-Its, and a host of other over-the-counter drugs.
He was scared to go to sleep that night. Then there were times when he
would be selective and claim he was cutting back. “Today I’m only doing
Ecstasy! ”Slim would say. That would last for twelve hours. I’ve always
seen Slim as an unloved little boy who throws tantrums. He has to have
his way or everyone will be miserable. One time we were running late for
a flight, and he had to have a vegetarian Whopper from Burger King. We
missed the flight! Needless to say, Paul wasn’t happy.

Slim can be very bold at times, like when were in San Diego. There
was this mother and two teenage kids who claimed they were his stepfamily from his dad. They made it known that they didn’t want anything
from him, they just wanted to be acknowledged. This family had pictures
of Slim’s dad and themselves. The photos had a very strong resemblance
to Marshall. I was given the honor to present this to Slim to see if he
was interested in meeting them. He glanced at the photos and said he
didn’t want anything to do with his dad. He then turned and threw the
photos out the bus window where the family was waiting. The crew tried
to convince him to at least hear their story, but he refused. It was sad
because that might have been his only chance to learn about his dad. But
in retrospect his father might have set the whole thing up. Who knows?