The relationship between Bizarre and Eminem goes all the way back to the pre-Slim Shady era. Bizarre is one of two D12 members Eminem still stays in regular contact with. Just a couple of weeks ago, he went with Em to watch the Lions open the season. Now, he’s sitting on the sofa, talking to Shirley Ju about music, touring life and friendship with Eminem.
A lot of the memories from those early days are fuzzy now, admits Bizarre. Asked about his favourite tour, he can’t pick one. There were too many, and the memories have begun to blur together. He calls Up in Smoke tour “the Chronic” tour, but he remembers the main thing: people and what he felt back then. Especially because Up in Smoke was his first introduction to this world. With no obligation to perform, Eminem brought the whole D12 crew along for the ride – to watch and learn:
The Anger Management tour was dope. A lot of the tours are dope. My first tour was the Chronic tour with Dr. Dre, and Snoop, and Warren G, and all of them. And we didn’t even rap. We were just chilling. Because Em wanted us to see it. We had just got signed. I don’t even think we had any songs done. We had a couple of songs, but we just wanted to be in the atmosphere and the environment. That shit was crazy.
Meanwhile, Bizarre avoids the question of Eminem’s behaviour on tour. This is not his story to tell, so he focuses on his own efforts to recreate a party vibe he learned from Snoop.
We were having fun, man. Just trying to keep shit up. We got this one idea from Snoop. Snoop got the dopest dressing room I’ve ever seen. He had like a big ass boom box in there. They been there playing like 70s shit. It’s just a party. So, I ended up stealing the idea. I brought a boom box on our tour, and we used to have little parties. Other rappers want to come in our room like, “Damn, what y’all over here doing, dawg? Y’all over here vibing like a motherfucker!”
Recently, Mr. Porter and Stat Quo shared a story from the Anger Management tour. While it wasn’t that lighthearted, it certainly captured the nerve and restless energy D12 had back then. Now, Denaun believes, the touring life itself holds little appeal for Em, partly because it is so closely associated with their hectic touring past.
Bizarre agrees, although he puts it more simply. When asked whom he would like to see perform at a Detroit Super Bowl, should one happen, he did not even consider Eminem. And when prompted directly to think about Eminem’s show, he just laughed:
Hell no. Em wants to chill. He wants to watch the Super Bowl. He doesn’t want to be performing.
Bizarre says he talks to Eminem 2-3 times a week. Eminem is feeling good, he assures the host and the audience. And this assessment rings true. It fits the picture we have increasingly seen of Eminem enjoying life away from public scrutiny and the stress of touring, and closer to his family and grandson. At the end of the day, Eminem has already performed at the Super Bowl halftime show, and even won an Emmy for this.