4

igiasi
es

CONEY ISLAND

Meet the four local Jewish guys who've guided

Detroit rapper Eminem along the road to success

Greek and American Cuisine
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154 S. Woodward, Birmingham
(248) 540-8780

Halsted Village
(37580 W. 12 Mile Rd.)
Farmington Hills
(248) 553-2360

and a trio of Grammy nominations.

right There. He said, 'Here, take this
guitar,' and he put it in my hands.
Then he said, 'Go up there and do
your thing. You can do it,'" Bass
recalls. "So I did. And I won."
But the brothers from Oak Park
drifted away from Bacow, continuing
with their own lives and producing
records out of their sound studio in
their basement.
In 1989, Mark Bass, driving home
from a party at 2:30 in the morning,
heard a new voice on the airwaves. It
belonged to a talented 14-year-old
who was rapping live on a local radio
show. Bass called a friend at the sta-
tion and was introduced right away to
the future phenom, Marshall Mathers.
"I told him to come over to my
house. At 4:30 a.m., he was banging
on my front door," Mark Bass says,
laughing.
The Bass brothers, known as the
Funky Bass Team, worked with
Mathers, helping him to learn the
ropes of recording while also aiding in
refining the then rough-around-the-
edges rapper. "From that time, we
worked heavy duty in the recording
studio up until we put out his first
recording, Infinite, in 1996," Mark
Bass says.
One day, the Bass brothers, hungry
for some coney dogs, stopped into the
Davison Coney Island in Oak Park.
There, they ran into Bacow, who was
going by the professional name Joel
Martin and was busy with his own
recording studio, 54 Sound. Bacow
had hooked up with local funk legend
George Clinton to produce and sign a
few bands and was in the process of
developing the hit-but-now-defunct
band Sponge.
Upon realizing their shared passion
for recording, the Bass brothers and
Bacow began hanging out in each
other's studios. "From that meeting in
the coney island, we restarted our
friendship," Bacow says. He went on
to work with the Bass Brothers in
guiding Eminem's career and protect-
ing the rapper's artistic interests.

6527 Telegraph Rd.
Corner of Maple (15 Mile)
Bloomfield Township
(248) 646-8568

4763 Haggerty Rd. at Pontiac Trail
West Wind Village Shopping Center
West Bloomfield
(248) 669-2295

841 East Big Beaver, Troy
(248) 680-0094

Above: Eminem, Joel Bacow/Martin
and Jeff Bass: "There I was working
with these legitimate big groups as a
producer or as a recording engineer;"
says Bacow/Martin. "I knew it was
just what I wanted [to do_ 1."

Opposite page top: Eminem and
manager Paul Rosenberg: "I started
o wanting to be an entertainer, but
t en I realized I was better of using
my smarts," says Rosenberg.

Opposite page bottom: Eminem,
center, with producers Jeff Bass,
left, and Mark Bass: The Bass
brothers are up for a Grammy for
Best Rap Album as the producers,
with Eminem, of triple platinum
"The Slim Shady LI?" Eminem
also is nominated for Best Rap Solo
Performance ("My Name Is') and
Best Rap Performance by a Duo
or Group ("Guilty Conscience",
performed with Dr. Dre) both
from "The Slim Shady LP"

Across town, Paul Rosenberg, son
of Stan and Carol Rosenberg, had
been busy growing up in Farmington
Hills. Always attracted to different
things and to the world of music in
general, he especially was drawn to rap
music during his days at Farrhington
Harrison High School.

"I started off wanting to be an
entertainer, but then I realized I was
better off using my smarts," he says. "I
decided the logical thing to do was
entertainment law, specifically music
law."
While still an undergrad at
Michigan State University, he and a
friend traveled to music shops in
Detroit to hear the talent spewing
forth from open-mike nights. In his
first year of law school at the
University of Detroit, he attended a
performance at a hip-hop shop on
Seven Mile Road and Greenfield. It
was there that he had his first contact
with Mathers.
"He would be the only white kid in
the place and he would destroy every-
one," Rosenberg says. "He was releas-
ing an independent recording with
Mark and Jeff [Bass] called Infinite. It
was good, but it wasn't where he quite
needed to be. I wasn't at the place I
needed to be either."
Rosenberg introduced himself to
the future Eminem and soon began
managing his career. After graduation,
Rosenberg moved to New York, passed
the bar exam and began work with the
New York City Housing Authority as
a defense attorney on personal injury
cases. But in his spare time, Rosenberg
worked hard to get Eminem into clubs
in both New York and Los Angeles.
He snagged a spot for the young
rapper in the Rap Coalition's 1997

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CONEY ISLAND
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(248) 569-5229

FARMINGTON SOUVLAKI
CONEY ISLAND
Between 13 & 14 on
Orchard Lake Road
30985 Orchard Lake Rd.
Farmington Hills
(248) 626-9732

UPTOWN PARTHENON
4301 Orchard Lake Rd.
West Bloomfield
(248) 538.6000

HERCULES FAMILY RESTAURANT
33292 West 12 Mile
Farmington Hills
(248) 489-9777

Serving whitefish, lamb shank,
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