Slain rapper made name for himself and his city

Aside from his city, he also helped to put Eminem on the map.
By KELLEY L. CARTER
DETROIT FREE PRESS
DETROIT -- Detroit hip-hop was at a loss for words.
It was difficult for a community of word-slingers to talk about the shooting death of one of their own Tuesday, as news quickly traveled the streets of Detroit and around the world.
At age 32, Detroit rapper Proof was dead. The man many credit with helping push Detroit rap onto the national scene, and who was widely seen as Eminem's right-hand man, was gone.
"He was one of the forefathers of Detroit hip-hop," said 34-year-old rapper Phat Kat, who recently hung out with Proof at Detroit's Northern Lights Lounge, a bar that attracts Detroit's hip-hop heavyweights every Tuesday night. "That's a real blow to the hip-hop community. ... He was one of the persons that was responsible for Detroit hip-hop as a whole."
Proof, who was born Deshaun Holton, was one of the most recognizable figures in the million-selling Detroit rap group D12, the supergroup that includes Eminem. He was considered one of the top hype men in the hip-hop game, always on stage -- at the mic -- next to Eminem. But he's probably best known to the world for being best buddies with Eminem, a friendship fictionalized in the movie "8 Mile" with Mekhi Phifer playing a role based on Proof. He even served as best man in January when Eminem remarried his ex-wife, Kim.
Rap battles
But here in Detroit, Holton is regarded as the man who was passionate about getting Detroit hip-hop on the map, and as a master battle-rapper .
In the mid-'90s, Proof's Saturday afternoons were spent hosting rap battles at the famed Hip Hop Shop on 7 Mile Road. This was the spawning ground for the scene that helped produce acts like D12, Eminem and Slum Village, and a time when Detroit hip-hop was not a player on the national scene. Proof was a guiding force.
It was his idea to assemble a collection of Detroit's best hip-hop talent and call it D12. It was his hand that helped push Eminem to become one of the world's biggest pop stars. A source close to Eminem said Tuesday that Eminem was devastated, and that the pair had been particularly close over the past few weeks, as Eminem's second marriage to Kim Mathers unraveled.
A simple "RIP Big Proof" graced the Web site for Iron Fist Records, the downtown Detroit label he had founded with an eye toward promoting homegrown rock, soul and hip-hop.
Eclectic mindset
In August, the company released "Searching for Jerry Garcia," Proof's first solo album. With 20 tracks that incorporated bits of psychedelic funk, jazz and hard rock into its lively rap mix, the disc effectively displayed Proof's eclectic musical mindset and his willingness to color outside the standard hip-hop lines.
Proof, who titled "Garcia" in homage to the late Grateful Dead guitarist, said the record reflected an ongoing quest for personal enlightenment, one he'd undertaken in response to "stress, a bad diet and drugs" as D12's star rose in the early '90s.
"It's about coming back, finding the way," he told the Detroit Free Press last summer.
After the release of "8 Mile," when battle rap was gaining newfound commercial exposure, Proof was hired to host the national search for the next best battle rapper by Showtime Networks.