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Page 1
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Eminem gets calls about injured loved ones, makes calls about hot hip-hop beats ...
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Page 2
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D12's Proof tries to steal a car, woo a woman with promises of chicken noodle soup ...
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Page 3
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Olivia zeroes in on the 'meat,' and Em and 50 spy on each other from backstage ...
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"I could keep making my own albums if I was really greedy ... [but] that's not what I'm about," Eminem explains. "I want to see hip-hop grow, whether it's coming from my label or Aftermath or Roc-A-Fella or Def Jam. ... And hip-hop can't keep growing if just Eminem keeps rapping. Pretty soon people are gonna get tired of me, if they're not already. So that's why you may see me fall back for a little while and it may take a year or two for my albums to come out."
Em pauses to collect his thoughts, his eyes scanning the empty stage in front of him.
"I don't know, it just it feels good to be able to help other people — to take people that come from where I come from, from the bottom, lower class, take people that are in messed-up situations and be able to make their lives better," he says.
Right now, one of those people is outside the venue, climbing onto the lap of a beautiful blonde who is trying to park her car in the lot. Her equally gorgeous friend in the passenger seat laughs hysterically.
"I was trying to steal a car, but they don't got no goddamned gas," jokes Proof, Eminem's hype man. "I'm officially an eligible bachelor. Holla! I want to take her back to the hotel, tie her up, feed her ... chicken noodle soup."
While the rest of the tour's lineup tends to remain backstage, Proof likes to walk around the venue, mingling with fans, taking pictures and signing autographs. In San Jose, he borrows a megaphone from marketers promoting Shade 45 (Shady Records' Sirius Satellite Radio channel) and circles the arena chanting, "D12! What!"
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"You guys got any steaks back there?"
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Meanwhile, another hard-to-miss D12 member, Bizarre, is backstage doing what he does best — going through catering. "I have entered my home," he says, scanning the entrees. "You guys got any steaks back there?"
Ultimately, he settles for teriyaki chicken and mashed potatoes, which he tops with apple sauce. "I'm a meatatarian: I don't eat vegetables," he says. "I rate this catering a 50 percent. No steak, no hamburgers! I'm gonna go to McDonald's as soon as the show's over."
Bizarre's word must be spreading, because as soon as his opening set is over, Lil Jon zips outside and starts grilling. The rapper, in a Bad Brains T-shirt and white Oakleys (in the dark), travels with his own grill and tonight is competing in a cook-off with a crewmember, whom he insists cheated by buying prepared salmon.
Jon preps his chicken himself, beginning by shoving an open can of Budweiser up its backside. "Emeril ain't nothin'!" he shouts. "I barbeque on Christmas. This is what we do in the South."
There are dozens of cases of Crunk!!! behind him, but Jon sips on a Bud of his own. Occasionally he pours a bit over the fire. "They gettin' a little hot, I've got to cool 'em down," he explains as a cloud of smoke rises over his chicken. "Where's my poker?"
Back inside the venue, in a different kind of smoke cloud, the members of G-Unit and their enormous posse (more than 90 people are traveling with the group, according to their manager) turn their shared dressing room into their own version of "Animal House." Hip-hop blares from a portable stereo while the guys down drinks, throw dice (with $20 bills being tossed on the floor like nickels) and smoke ... a lot.
Surprisingly, there are no women. That'll come later, back at the hotel.
"Guys have been poppin' off," Tony Yayo happily volunteers. "That means they've been cheatin'. We've been drinkin', we've been ... except for me. I'm on parole. I want to thank fed probation. I haven't been drinkin' or smokin'. I'm in a different hotel 'cause of that."
Conversation ranges from the music (R. Kelly gets a mixed response) to Young Buck's legal issues ("I don't know why I've got to go to court on my girl's birthday," he complains) to their "pieces," the gaudy, diamond-encrusted pendants hanging around their necks.
"It says 'We run New York,' " Banks says of the message printed under a Statue of Liberty replica he wears.
Young Buck spins the diamond "Y" and "B" on his piece. "The world's spinnin', my money's spinnin'," he says. (Click here to see their pieces up close.)
Later, when Banks spots a metal detector at one of the doors, he mutters, "I don't know why they got that there, I ain't walking through that." He does anyway, pieces dangling, and it goes off. No one stops him.
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Photo: MTV News
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