D12 Frontman, Proof, Shot and Killed in Detroit

Proof at the Spin magazine Superbowl after party in February.

I WAS IN GETTING DRESSED when my Sidekick started shaking like a crap game. It was a message from my homeboy I work with at The Source. "Yo, cuzzo, heard the news about Proof? Dude was shot and killed last night in Detroit." I thought to myself, "Damn, not again . . . another hip-hop soldier lost?" I jumped online, and there it was on MTV News staring me right in the face. The D12 general, Eminem's best friend and recent best man, shot dead at a Detroit nightclub. He was 30.

According to reports, police arrived at the CCC Club on East Eight Mile Road just after 5 a.m. Proof (nee DeShaun Holton) and another 35-year-old man were each found with a single gunshot wound to the head. The other man is listed in critical condition. Proof was pronounced dead on arrival.


Proof, top left, with Eminem and D12 bandmates.

That's all that's known at this time, as information about the case continues to stream in. But it's certainly another sad day in hip-hop, Intelligentsia. I remember seeing Proof on stage with Eminem at Madison Square Garden last August for the Anger Management Tour. He was vibrant, full of energy, doing what he loved doing. Now he's no longer with us. For me, the primary question right now is, will Proof's murder be logged into our hip-hop chronicles in the fashion of Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Jam Master Jay, and Big L - another killing that goes unsolved indefinitely? Where do you draw the line in the "no snitching" code when it comes to cases like these?

Eminem has unparalleled power in hip-hop. Perhaps it takes a unique hip-hop member like him with unique power to bring forth a change in unsolved rap murders. We'll see.

In the meantime, R.I.P. Proof. We're going to miss you, homeboy.


Stay tuned, Intelligentsia . . .