Proof of D12 Shot and Killed In Detroit East Side Club

Tuesday. April 11.2006 7:10 AM EST

Detroit rapper Proof, a member of the rap group D12 and Eminem's right-hand man was shot and killed at a club on Eight Mile Road early this morning.

A St. John Hospital spokeswoman confirmed this morning that Proof, 32, whose birth name is Deshaun Holton, was pronounced dead after police said he was rushed to Holy Cross Hospital in a private vehicle with a gunshot wound to the head.

A second man, 35, also was shot in the head at Club CCC on east Eight Mile, said police spokeswoman Yvette Walker. He was in critical condition at St. John Hospital, said Walker.

"They have no suspects in custody," Walker said. "There was an altercation and shots rang out."

Proof acted as Eminem"s hype man during his concert performances on stages worldwide. He also stood up as Eminem's best man when he remarried Kim Mathers at Meadowbrook Hall in January.

Proof — known as Big Proof or P to friends and fans — was the glue of Detroit"s hip-hop scene, a rapper who enjoyed multi-platinum riches but stayed accessible and visible in the community.

The shooting death marks the second significant loss in Detroit's hip-hop community this year. Influential producer and Slum Village founding member Jay Dee died in February due to kidney problems stemming from his bout with lupus.

It also marks the latest incident of violence involving Detroit rappers, following an incident on New Year"s Eve when Obie Trice was shot in the head while driving on the Lodge Freeway.

In an eerie coincidence, Proof is shot and killed in Eminem’s music video for "Like Toy Soldiers,” a song which acts as a warning against hip-hop wars escalating into real life violence. The video shows a bloodied Proof lying in a hospital bed while doctors try to revive him, and also depicts the rapper’s funeral, attended by Eminem and the other members of D12.

D12's label, Interscope Records, released a statement early Tuesday saying memorial service arrangements were incomplete and his family was requesting privacy. The company also said another member of the group was not involved in the shooting.

"Contrary to earlier rumors and reports, D-12 member Bizarre was not involved in the incident in Detroit last night," Interscope said. "He was at home in Atlanta, Georgia."

Proof appeared in the film "8 Mile" as Lil’ Tic, a rapper who causes Eminem’s character, B. Rabbit, to choke in an early battle scene. David "Future" Porter, Mekhi Phifer’s character in the semi-rooted-in-truth film, was based on Proof, who used to host rap battles at Detroit’s famed Hip Hop Shop.

Proof’s long-in-the-works full length solo debut "Searching for Jerry Garcia" was released in August 2005. He released the album on his own Iron Fist Records.

 

D12 Provide Voices, Music For 'Crime Life: Gang Wars' Game

Thu. May 19.2005 7:10 PM EDT

What do you get when you mix E3 with D12?

ED15? Well, that and "Crime Life: Gang Wars."

The upcoming video game, which was previewed this week at E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) in Los Angeles, will feature new music from D12 as well as each of the members of Eminems group D12's voices and likeness.

Inspired by gang movies like "New Jack City" and "Boyz N the Hood," "Crime Life: Gang Wars" is a free-roaming, beat-'em-up game featuring a small-time gang member who must fight for control of the city.

U.K. rapper Doom Man and actor Jason Flemyng of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch" fame, have also lent their talents to the game as D12 did, which will be available for Xbox and PC in the fall.

"Crime Life: Gang Wars" is the latest in a long list of projects coming from D12, including several solo albums.

Bizarre will release Hannicap Circus on June 28 (see "D12's Bizarre Delves Into Puberty, Porn And Rock Stardom") and just shot a video for the Eminem produced first single, "Rock Star."

D12's Bizarre Delves Into Puberty, Porn And Rock Stardom

Tue. April 05.2005 10:24 PM EDT

D12's Bizarre says he's not done being a part of the band d12, but it's time for him to finally do his solo album. So after years of talk, Bizarre will release his Hannicap Circus on June 28.

"We was like, 'Let's go ahead and get it over with, let people see another side of me,' " he said from his crib in Atlanta on Tuesday. "I've basically been doing this for a minute. People say my verses are so humorous they want to hear more. It's a little bit more stories about me and my life. ... It tells my story as an MC trying to struggle in the rap game. It has some crazy stuff."
Bizarre said his off-the-wall album title is a nod to himself and some of the people whose paths he's crossed over the years.

"Every entertainer I've been around has been on some weird, crazy sh--," he explained. "It's something weird about them, Dre, Eminem, everybody I've been around — especially R&B singers — it's something weird about them. I think artists is just weird, period. I know I have got some weird, crazy habits. I consider myself a special person. There's nobody like me."

Eminem, 50, Lil Jon, G-Unit, D12 Team Up For Anger Management 3 Tour This Summer

Mon. April 04.2005 11:28 AM EDT

Eminem is hitting the road this summer, and he's bringing along a lot of friends. The Anger Management 3 tour is shaping up to the blockbuster of the summer, with a roster that also includes 50 Cent, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, G-Unit, D12, Obie Trice and Em's latest protégé, Atlanta's Stat Quo.
The 20-date, five-and-a-half-week tour will kick off on July 7 in Noblesville, Indiana, at the Verizon Wireless Music Center and is currently slated to conclude in Em's hometown of Detroit at Comerica Park on August 12.

Though 50 Cent will miss the first two dates because of filming on his movie debut (see "50 Cent's 'Locked And Loaded' To Be Helmed By Oscar-Nominated Director"), 50 is on board for the rest of the tour, his first-ever outing with mentor Eminem. Ludacris will fill in on the first two dates.

Dirty Movies: D12 Making Two Films, Including Horror Flick

'Devil's Night,' 'Runyon Cash' both due next year. By D12

D12, minus main man Eminem, are heading to Hollywood, with plans to make two movies in the coming months, according to their spokesperson.

Few details have been released about the projects except that one, "Devil's Night" (named after D12's

debut album), is a horror movie, and the other, "Runyon Cash," is named after a street that members of the Detroit group grew up on, à la "8 Mile." Both are scheduled for release in 2005.

Max Gousse and Jeremy Geffen, who together manage D12, are producing the movies for D12. Gousse, who previously worked with B2K at Epic Records, executive produced "You Got Served."

Along with shooting the movies, D12's members will spend the rest of the summer working on other music projects. Bizarre has a still-untitled solo album due in January, while Kon Artis and Kuniva are teaming up under the name of the Brigade for a record also due in early 2005.

Proof of D12 has also been working on a solo project for a few years (see "D12's Proof Readying Solo LP With 'Kurt Cobain' On It"), although D12's spokesperson had no information on the record's progress.

The rappers will balance the films and albums with their continued promotion of D12 World, which is climbing the albums chart again thanks to the single "How Come." D12 are touring Europe in September and Australia and Japan in December.

"My Band," D12's album's hit first single, was nominated last week for three Video Music Awards, including the coveted Video of the Year (see "Jay-Z, Beyonce, No Doubt, Outkast Lead Pack Of VMA Nominees").

This report is from MTV News on D12.

D12 Haunted By Specter Of Eminem At L.A. Show

WEST HOLLYWOOD, California — "When I say D, you say 12," Proof of D12 demanded of Thursday's House of Blues crowd at the D12 show.

"D," he chanted.

"Eminem," a pack of kids in the back responded.

This is what D12 face each time the five friends of Marshall Mathers take the stage. No matter how good the show, there are disappointed fans who came thinking Em was part of the package or that this might be one of the nights he makes a surprise appearance. ("This is L.A., he's gotta show," one teenager told his date.)

Fortunately, the group seems used to it by now, as the lyrics to D12 song "My Band" spell out. And it not only gives D12 another thing to joke about it, it must motivate them to, as they say, "bring it." Something has to explain that energy.

Thursday's D12 show kicked off with a bang in the form of "Sh-- Can Happen," and that was only with Kon Artis and Kuniva, the less colorful personalities of the group.

Swift and Proof only elevated the levels when they entered one after the other for their verses in "Pistol Pistol" (Em's verses in both songs were skipped over.) "Never say that I'm a gangsta," Proof rapped. "Now that's gangsta," the crowd responded.

Anyone who knows anything about D12 knows the party doesn't officially start until Bizarre of D12 is in the house, and that came by the third song Thursday, when the rotund rhyme-slinger entered in a red and black blazer (stretched to the max) and matching shower cap to rap his foul D12 World solo track, "Just Like U."

"If your wife is pregnant I call her a whore/ Leave her no money and go out on tour," he rapped to an audience that was at least one-third female, but one that seemed entirely entertained.

A few more D12 tracks followed before the group pulled out its Marshall Mathers LP posse cut "Under the Influence" By D12. With Em absent, Proof led the crowd in a sing-along of the chorus, "So you can suck my d--- if you don't like my sh--."

"We're gonna do some straight G sh--," Bizarre told the crowd, introducing "Pimp Like Me," during which each of the members got on their knees and demonstrated their, ahem, lovemaking skills on the monitors.

Things only got dirtier before Swift changed the mood entirely a few songs later. "There's some bullsh-- in the world right now, so let's hear you," he said, introducing the Devils Night anthem "Fight Music." (It was just after this song when an angry kid sort of resembling Eminem jumped on the stage and Proof instantly cocked his fist before D12's bodyguards, who made Bizarre look slim, yanked him away.)

Moving right along, Proof of D12 then addressed an even more serious problem. "Bizarre doesn't drink," he announced. "Come on, let's get him to drink tonight." A roadie then brought out a bottle of beer, which the big man chugged in a matter of seconds as the rest of the group broke into its latest single, "40 Oz" by D12.

Bizarre then left the stage, only to return a song later shirtless and sporting a tiny cowboy hat. Adding to the comic effect, he was flanked by a midget in the same get-up. Together, the two dropped to their knees and demonstrated a choreographed sex routine as DJ Salam Wreck spun Prince's "Purple Rain," which he morphed into another "purple" classic of sorts, D12's "Purple Pills."

With the crowd in a frenzy, Swift announced Bizarre was the group's new lead singer and then launched into his "My Band" verse (skipping over Eminem's intro). As the song came to an end, Proof introduced his own "salsa" as he showed off a surprisingly impressive salsa dance with a towel.

For the encore, D12 Kon Artis and D12 Proof zipped through D12's Song "How Come" before the night's opening acts, Bone Crusher and fellow Detroiters Slum Village and King Gordy, joined D12 for a grand finale of D12 song "American Psycho."

"You 'bout to journey into the mind of a psychopath killer/ Blood spiller/ Mentality much iller," the rappers chanted in unison. There were so many voices you could almost forget the one that wasn't there. Almost.

This report is from MTV News on D12.

D12 Get Seriously Funny And Take Over The World

NEW YORK — The Roots they are not. Sometimes lost in all the humor of D12's "My Band" is the fact that the group really doesn't want to be put in the same category as instrumentalists.

Eminem's crew of Swift, Bizarre, Proof, Kuniva and Kon Artis are just rappers.

"It's a big misconception with bands and us," Kuniva said Monday. "When I think of bands, I think of instruments with live sounds. With a rap collective, that's what they are, a group, a posse. No one ever called Wu-Tang Clan 'a band.' ... We do hip-hop. We don't play instruments or nothing like that. We just tried to clear that up and at the same time just have fun with it."

Not only did they have fun with it, they've had a hit with it. The single and video for "My Band" are bigger than Bizarre's stomach. One of the clip's most memorable images is the robust rapper doing a parody of 50 Cent's "In Da Club" video by running a treadmill and hanging upside-down like the leader of the G-Unit.

"We always make fun of people," Bizarre explained. "We make fun of people, we make fun of ourselves. We just decided to make fun of 50 on a fat guy level. He's buffed, I'm not so buffed. I wanted to let him know, 'Hey, dog, I work out too. You can find me in the club.' ... We're jokesters, swindlers."

Despite all the humor on their new album, D12 World, the crew said it buckled down and got serious when recording the project.

It's called D12 World "because it's all about us on this album," Bizarre explained. "The first album, we laid back and let Marshall [Mathers] take control. We were new to the game. [This album] we're taking more control as far as production, the choruses, song input and ideas."

"This album we're letting people know who we are as individuals and as a group," Kuniva added. "We really went in the studio with a mission. We knocked out a whole bunch of songs in like two weeks. It's a serious side of D12. We wanted to up our game as far as flow and work ethics. The sophomore jinx, you always have the jitters. We didn't even think about it."

They may not have been thinking about being jinxed, but the guys sure seemed to have just about everything else floating through their maniacal minds. Blood, guts, guns, molestation, malt liquor, incest, crackheads and prostitutes, just to name a few things, all make D12 World go round.

"You don't want to be just like your daddy, pimpin' hoes, driving around in Caddies," Bizarre raps from the perspective of a father talking to his son, on his solo offering, the anti-role-model anthem "Just Like You." The shower-cap-wearing member of D12 said although he got to shine by himself, he's more partial to the title track where he gets to freestyle with his boys like they did back in the day.

"We go back and forth every four bars," Bizarre said. "The members keep switching. That's something we use to do back in the hip-hop shop days, pass the mic to each other like a hot potato."

The crew love is prevalent on another track called "Loyalty," one of the only songs that was opened up to a guest star, Obie Trice. "We was just in the studio, vibing," Kuniva said. "Obie just stopped by to hang out. When he came in and heard that track, he said, 'Ah, man, I gotta get on this.' He went in there and spit a dope verse. He was ripping it to shreds."

B-Real also made the cut for the guest list. On the Dr. Dre-produced "American Psycho II," he raps. "I'm a little bit off the chain/ Call me insane, but the fact remains that I'm a psycho/ Better get in through your brain, when you say my name, never say it in vain/ 'Cause I'm a psycho."

"We were in there thinking about the hook," Kuniva remembered. "Bizarre went in there and laid a hook, it was kind of crazy. Then he said, 'You know who would sound dope? B-Real would sound dope on this.' We called him and he came right to the studio."

The dirty half-dozen do show composure while rapping about deceased member Bugz, who was murdered on May 21, 1999. In fact, the original plan for D12 was for him to be the sixth member of the rap clan, not Eminem. On "Good Die Young," D12 rap, "They say the good die young/ That's why I know we gonna have fun/ In this life, 'cause you only have one/ When God comes for me, don't cry."

D12 are in the midst of putting together a club tour that may include Slum Village as openers. It's unclear whether Eminem will hit the road with the group, as he is working on his fourth LP. Next year, however, fans might see not only Eminem with the rest of D12, but the entire Shady Records family. D12 said there's talk about the whole label going on tour together in '05.