"Shady Bizzness: " Life as Eminem's Bodyguard in an Industry of Paper Gangsters" by Byron Williams Page A

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