The one rapper Eminem described as Detroit to the core
Detroit makes up a huge part of Eminem’s musical identity. But even though he is clearly the most influential rapper to ever emerge from Michigan’s most populous city, he doesn’t necessarily think he embodies it as others do. Of all of Detroit’s rappers, Em believes that his late friend Proof represented the city like no one else.
Proof, who is posthumously set to appear on the upcoming Gorillaz album The Mountain, was a childhood friend of Em’s who later performed with him as a hype man and fellow member of D12. The pair remained close until the end, when, in 2006, Proof was shot and killed after a fight broke out over a game of pool. He was 32.
Eminem was hugely affected by the loss of his friend, as he spoke about during a 2009 interview with Detroit Metro Times. Only three years after Proof’s death, Em admitted that things were hard, but he claimed that “as time goes by, you get a little better at dealing with something like that.”
“In response to losing Proof,” he went on, “I’ve also just learned that no matter what—no matter how much I want to beat myself up over what happened, the wish that I could have done something or have been there or done something to change the course of what happened—nothing that I do or say or wish is gonna bring Proof back. So I’ve just kinda finally come to that realisation.”
Em said that he didn’t know if he could “ever totally accept his death,” but that he was “certainly getting better at coping with it.”
Even so, there were moments where his grief hit harder than at other times. Performing was a particularly sore spot, which, considering he often took to the stage with Proof, makes sense.
“When I’m doing something like getting back into performing again and shit like that—you know going onstage again and stuff like that, it just feels really empty,” Em admitted. “Those are the days when I really miss him.”
Eminem went on to speak about Proof’s wider legacy. As well as being a close personal friend to Em, Proof had also been a public figure that people admired—especially those in their native Detroit. “Proof,” he said, “was so much to Detroit in so many different ways.”
“I heard someone describe Proof once as like a comet,” Em continued. “And he was like a comet because you only get to see it once in a lifetime. That made a lot of sense to me. Because it’s true. You know, there will only be one Proof. And Proof was so much to this city in so many different ways. His spirit. In many ways, he just kinda was Detroit.”