Proof (rapper)

Proof (2005)

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Searching for Jerry Garcia   US 65 08/27/2005 (2 weeks)

Proof (born  October 2, 1973 in Detroit , Michigan ; † April 11, 2006 there ; real name DeShaun Dupree Holton ), also known as Derty Harry or Oil Can Harry , was an American rapper and actor . Proof was the founder and member of the hip-hop crew D12 .

Life

Proof's father worked in the music industry and produced The Jones Girls and Marvin Gaye , among others .

In high school in 1988 he befriended the then unknown Eminem . With him and four other Detroit rappers Kuniva , Bizarre , Kon Artis and Bugz, he founded the hip-hop group D12 in 1996 . Bugz died in 1999 after being the victim of a shootout. In the same year Proof won the "Source Magazine Freestyling Competition", a battle rap tournament organized by hip-hop magazine The Source . From then on, Swift took over from Bugz , who then joined D12. In 2001 the D12 debut album Devils Night was released , of which four million copies were sold worldwide thanks to the now famous Eminem. The follow-up album D12 World was released in 2004 and contained, among other things, the hit singles My Band and How Come . In 2003, Proof was the only member of D12 in the film 8 Mile in the role of Lil 'Tic , who competes against Bunny Rabbit (Eminem) in one of the battle raps. Proof was Eminem's right-hand man and repeatedly supported him in his solo performances when he was on tour without a D12.

Proof at a gig with Eminem in Munich (1999)

In 2005 Proof founded his own record label "Iron Fist Records". On August 9 of the same year, Searching for Jerry Garcia, his second solo album, was released. This has a special meaning: The date of the release marks the tenth anniversary of the death of the musician Jerry Garcia , who was the front man of the band Grateful Dead . The release date was therefore the same everywhere around the world. The album featured guest appearances by Method Man , Nate Dogg , Eminem , B-Real , 50 Cent , Obie Trice and MC Breed. In the track "Kurt Kobain" contained on it, Proof raps a suicide note before his own fictional suicide, in which he looks back on his life and career, the title of the piece alluding to the Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain .

On January 14, 2006, Proof was Eminem's best man at his re-wedding to Kim.

Proof was married and had three children with his wife and two sons from previous relationships.

death

On the morning of April 11, 2006, Proof was hit by two bullets in the head and two in the chest while leaving the CCC nightclub located on 8 Mile Road in Detroit. He was taken to St. John Conner Creek Hospital in a private car ; there, however, only his death could be determined.

The police reported that the exchange of fire was preceded by a dispute in which Proof is said to have used a weapon.

When the police arrived at the scene, the small club was almost completely empty. Only one witness was available to the police to testify. The police could only rely on traces of blood and cartridge cases as evidence. The 28-year-old bouncer Mario Etheridge was suspected of having fired the fatal shots the day after the crime; he wanted to protect his cousin, Keith Bender, who was also a bouncer in the same nightclub, from Proof, who attacked him because of a dispute over a pool game. The prosecution brought charges against Etheridge, but only for illicit gun possession and use of guns inside a building.

On September 21, 2006, a 3-day trial of Mario Etheridge, the former bodyguard of the CCC Club, ended. As supporters of Proof threatened with an act of revenge, the 28-year-old was escorted by police officers through the back door after the trial. In late October, Etheridge was fined $ 2,000 for firing the gun. The court found he acted in self-defense as Proof first pulled a gun and shot Etheridge's cousin Keith Bender.

The funeral of the hip-hop musician took place on April 19, 2006, after the body had been laid out the day before. Proof was buried in camera at the Fellowship Chapel in Detroit. Eminem said in his speech that Proof wasn't a killer, he just quickly lost his composure. ( "Proof was no killer. He just had a short fuse." )

Seven months after Proof's death, his close friend Reginald “Mudd” Moore, who was also in the club at the time of the crime, gave an interview with the hip-hop magazine XXL . In this he described the events in the club from his point of view, which Proof does not portray either as the instigator of the dispute or as a murderer. He says that he entered the club with Proof and two other friends around 3:30 a.m. and that a little later a dispute between Proof and Keith Bender about a game of billiards escalated. The bouncer Mario Etheridge then fired two shots in the air to end the duel, but caused panic in the club. Proof have now also drawn his gun and shot once in the air. Bender is said to have tried to disarm Proof from behind. Mudd went on to explain that Etheridge had fired several shots in the direction of Benders and Proof, killing both of them.

Discography

Proof's discography includes two albums as well as several singles, EPs and mixtapes:

Albums

• 2004: I Miss the Hip Hop Shop
• 2005: Searching for Jerry Garcia

Singles

• 2002: One, Two
• 2005: Gurls wit da boom
• 2005: MAD

EPs

• 1998: Anywhere
• 2002: Electric Coolaid Acid Testing

Mix tapes

• 2002: Bigproof.com Online Mixtape
• 2005: Grown Man Shit
• 2008: Mayor of Detroit
• 2010: Time a Tell

D12

→ see D12 / discography

Web links

Commons : Proof  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Proof in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Proof at Discogs (English)
• Proof at Allmusic (English)
• Myspace page from Proof

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Proof winner of the Source Magazine Freestyling Competition 1999
4. ↑ Laut.de: Proof: D-12 rapper shot in Detroit
5. ↑ Obie Trice explains Proof's death
6. ↑ Proof: Killer only has to pay a fine
7. ↑ Rapper Proof is buried tomorrow
8. ↑ Info about Proof in the Rap-Wiki , accessed on May 26, 2014.
9. ↑ Interview with Proof's friend Reginald Moore after his death , accessed on July 17, 2014.
10. ↑ D12 Discography ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 19, 2010 
11. ↑ http://www.bigproof.com/