Eminem In Strip Club Melee?
Eminem, whose days of pill-popping and double-takes at the altar seemed to be over, still can't shake his "The Way I Am" tendencies.
Detroit Police have confirmed to ShowBuzz that they are investigating a fight at a strip club on Detroit's west side that allegedly involved the rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III.
According to the Detroit Free Press, police said an assault occurred around 1:15 a.m. Thursday at Cheetah on 19245 W. Eight Mile Road.
The alleged victim, a 48-year-old man identified as Miad J. by WXYZ, Detroit's ABC affiliate, says he was punched in the face four or five times by Mathers, while using the men's room at the strip club.
In an interview with WXYZ, Miad says he was using a urinal next to Mathers, when another man, an overzealous fan, entered the men's room and started to talk to the rapper.
Mathers bodyguard, who was also in the restroom, took umbrage with the fan and told him to be quiet. Miad says he then asked the bodyguard to relax and ease up on the awestruck man.
"Eminem got done and boom," Miad, who lives in Royal Oak, Mich., told WXYZ. "He started swinging. I wasn't even expecting it."
The Detroit Free Press also said Cheetah's representatives confirmed a fight occurred at the club and that Mathers was involved in the incident, but they refused to elaborate.
Miad insists it was the rapper who hit him, leaving a welt on the side of his face that was visible during his on-camera interview with WXYZ.
After throwing several punches, Miad says Mathers left the club and Cheetah's bouncers threw the rapper's bodyguards out.
The WXYZ report also quotes witnesses who claim to have seen a member of the rapper's entourage brandish a gun.
Before filing any charges, the Detroit Police would like to hear Mathers' side of the story. Then they say they will present their case to the prosecutor's office.
Mathers, who says he yearns for a private life and has kept a low profile in Detroit in recent years, is no stranger to run-ins with the law. In 2000, he was arrested twice the same day for two separate gun-related incidents in the Macomb and Oakland counties of Michigan. The arrests resulted in a three-year probation sentence, which ended in 2003.
Most recently, the rapper made his first on-stage appearance at the BET Awards since rumors of his retirement began to catch fire in the fall of 2005.
By Milosh Marinovich