DETROIT – Rapper Proof, one of Eminem’s closest friends, was killed early Tuesday in a seedy nightclub along the road made famous by the rap superstar.
Proof, a member of the rap group D12, was hit by gunfire at the CCC club on Eight Mile, the dividing line between Detroit and its northern suburbs. Police said he and another man were shot in the head. The other man lived but was critically injured.
Officers responding to 911 calls found the bar empty when they arrived, and police said the victims were taken to hospitals by private vehicles.
Proof, whose real name was Deshaun Holton, was dead on arrival at St. John Conner Creek, an outpatient treatment facility that used to be a hospital.
“It’s kind of a messy affair, and we’re trying to sort it all out,” said police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings.
She said detectives don’t know what Proof was doing at the bar, which was operating beyond its licensed hours.
Proof, 32, played a bit part in Eminem’s 2002 film “8 Mile.” He and Eminem seldom were seen in public without each other. Proof was the best man at Eminem’s wedding in January, and they have been close friends since before Eminem became a superstar.
The video for the Eminem song “Like Toy Soldiers” shows Eminem pacing a hospital hallway as doctors try to revive Proof, who has been shot. Later, Eminem attends Proof’s funeral as the song’s lyrics lament the escalation in violence between rappers.
It was Proof’s idea to form D12 in the mid-1990s, when the members met at Detroit’s Hip-Hop Shop, a clothing store by day and hip-hop club by night. The six-member Detroit-based rap group counts Eminem among its members.
Police said an argument at the club escalated into gunshots.
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