Searching for Deshaun Holton

Well, it's not uncommon when rappers are shot to death. Some of you may think it's a little strange for me to be paying tribute to a rapper here. But in deciding whether or not I should post this, it occured to me that he was a big part of music that I value and that I can relate to. He was basically Eminem's right hand man. He was one of the founding members (if not the founding member) of the group D12. What doesn't make sense is what happened...

If you haven't already read or heard about it, Proof was at a club that was illegally operating outside of its licensed hours. He was outside the club and was shot along with one other man (as yet unidentified). And that's about all we're told at this point. But this isn't like Tupac or Notorious BIG getting shot. They were at the forefront of hip hop when their lives were brought to a premature end. They were also involved in a personal war.

As far as we know Proof was not involved in a personal war (although his friends often were). He was a man who tried to contribute to rap music in a way that was artistic and seemed to believe that hip hop added value to the music scene. He never really had any public beefs. Was the shooting random? Is there something that the press isn't aware of? You know if they had any dirt on him they would publish it.

In either case, Proof has made or has been involved in making music that was meaningful to me. To that extent, I'm sad he's gone. Granted, this definitely isn't a rant, so it's not consistent with the theme of this blog. But I wanted to post it, so there! :-P