How a paintball gun landed Eminem in big trouble in 1993
Eminem has expressed a tremendous predilection towards violence in his music, and, as a young man, he was arrested for allegedly enacting it. The 20-year-old Marshall was nabbed by police for a drive-by shooting — albeit that’s not quite as bad as it sounds.
A friend of his was the one to pull the trigger, according to a profile on Eminem published by Salon in 2000. Em was driving the car, and this friend shot at someone. This sounds really serious, and, to an extent, it was. But thankfully the shooting wasn’t done with an actual firearm. It was a paintball gun.
On top of that, it seems the paintball gun wasn’t that powerful. The police later stated that the paintball didn’t even break on impact, after it had been fired. It must have been a weak device.
Em was nonetheless arrested for his alleged part in the paintball shooting, but he didn’t face consequences for it in the end. In court, the alleged target of the paintball attack didn’t turn up. The case was duly dismissed and Eminem walked free.
Em would later reference the incident in a couple of his works. The first was in the film 8 Mile, which recreates the paintball shooting. This scene, in and of itself, later landed Em in hot water, as a spate of real paintball shootings were blamed on it.
As per local reporting, the town of Stanley in the English county of Durham saw a series of paintball attacks some years ago, targeting people and businesses, seemingly at random. The police, in response, refused to rule out a connection between these attacks and the scene in 8 Mile.
A spokesperson for Durham Police conceded that there was “no proof” that the “extremely dangerous” attacks were inspired by 8 Mile, but they also claimed it “can’t be ruled out.”
Aside from that scene in 8 Mile, Em also referenced the paintball incident in one of his songs. On the leaked track ‘Difficult,’ Em raps about it — and, in doing so, he offers a big hint as to who his accomplice was that fired the paintball gun. The song was a tribute to his late friend Proof, and, if the lyrics are to be believed, it seems that it was Proof who took the shot.
On the track, Em recalls past times when he and Proof were “eggin’ cars,” “paintballin’,” and “gettin’ arrested,” even mentioning that someone “didn’t show up for court, so we got off on a technicality, left sweatin’.” It seems like Proof really was his paintball shooting partner all those years ago.