D12 rapper Proof killed in Detroit nightclub shooting

Proof

Proof, a member of the rap group D12 and a close friend of Eminem, was killed in a shooting at a nightclub along Eight Mile Road early Tuesday.

The death of Proof - whose real name is Deshaun Holton - was confirmed by Dennis Dennehy, the publicist for D12's label, Interscope Records.

Proof was the best man at Eminem's wedding in January and often appeared alongside the superstar rapper at concerts and public appearances. Proof also appeared in the film "8 Mile."


Proof got into an argument at the CCC nightclub which escalated into gunshots, according to the Detroit police.


Two people were shot in the head, but it was not immediately clear who the second person was or what his condition might be. Proof was confirmed dead on arrival at a medical clinic not far from the nightclub. He was 30.


Eight Mile Road, the unofficial boundary between the black Detroit inner city and the beginnings of the white suburbs, is one of the mythical birthplaces of modern hiphop, whose shocking vistas of deep urban decay formed the backdrop of the critically acclaimed Eminem movie 8 Mile, released in 2002.


Proof was in that movie and played the part of Lil' Tic.


A spokesman for D12's record label, Interscope Records, put out an appeal for privacy while Proof's family and friends made memorial service arrangements.


It was a poignant end for a performer who spent much of his professional career railing against the widespread stereotype of rap stars who hit the big time, only to go down in a hail of bullets.


Last year, on his debut album "Searching for Jerry Garcia", he explored the untimely deaths of musical icons unconnected with rap - starting with the eponymous lead singer of the Grateful Dead, who died from alcohol-related problems 10 years to the day before the album's release, and also including John Lennon and Kurt Cobain.


Proof, in fact, was just as exasperated with rap's perpetuation of its own stereotypes as he was with the audience appetite for it.


"It's almost the same shit over and over," he told the Canadian paper the Windsor Star in an interview.


"It's like I'm hearing the same album, damn near, again and again.


"You know, there's only so much drugs you can sell, there's only so many people you can kill...Me, I'm trying to bring the art form back in line.


"It's not just 'bling bling, I'll shoot ya'."


Proof started out as Eminem's "hypeman" in Detroit clubs - a role depicted in the movie 8 Man by the character Future, played by Mekhi Phifer.


Once Eminem hit the big time, becoming the most successful white rapper ever, Proof was inspired to branch out on his own.


D12 - the name is inspired by the movie The Dirty Dozen - were championed by Eminem, who had a big hand in producing and performing on their two albums to date, D12 World and Devil's World.


Those albums, in turn, enjoyed success worldwide.


Death and gun violence, inevitably, was a theme running through D12's output.


On the track "Good Die Young", Proof raps about the pain of burying a friend who never stood a chance to put his life in order.


"Now my dreams are just dream cops and gun shots," he sings.


"The fun stops when your homie's up in a box."


Proof's own life, by all accounts, was pretty wild itself.


"I been through a lot," he told the Windsor Star.


"I've done a lot of crazy shit."


So many of his friends have had drug problems that he described the making of his solo album as "a methadone clinic".


In 2004 he spent time in jail after an armed confrontation with his friend turned rival, the Detroit emcee Royce Da 5'9".


The two men patched up their differences, though, and shared a stage during a live performance last summer.


- INDEPENDENT