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Shell-shocked by deaths and negative publicity, rappers ponder a future of making music without the guidance of Proof and Jay Dee
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So now what?
It’s never exactly been easy to be a part of Detroit’s fledgling hip-hop scene. There have been complaints that national labels snub this city’s music, gripes about how it’s difficult to sustain an area fan base, and moans that commercial radio won’t play local stuff that lacks major-label backing.
It’s always been hard, but through the difficult waters, there were two innovators who championed Detroit music: producer and rapper Jay Dee and rapper and label owner Proof.
The two friends were forefathers of Detroit hip-hop. As a producer, Jay Dee put a distinct Detroit sound on the map, while Proof made national noise with D12 and Eminem. But more than that, they both continued to serve as ambassadors of Detroit’s witty, biting and soulful brand of hip-hop. They pushed up-and-comers and spent time on the underground scene, even though they were linked with national and major labels.
They both died earlier this year within two months of each other, Jay Dee from complications of a rare blood disease and kidney failure, and Proof in a violent gun battle that police are still investigating.
The latter death continues to rock the scene. There’s great potential that the legacy of Proof, born Deshaun Holton, will be scarred — Detroit police are pinpointing him as the one who started the confrontation that also left another man dead.
Some popular artists on the Detroit scene wondered if the music should stop — or change. Others wanted to quickly trudge forth, the way they feel both Proof and Jay Dee, born James Yancey and also known as J Dilla, would have wanted.
And everyone waits to see who will emerge as the scene’s new leader, the person who’ll be a mentor, wheeler-and-dealer and cheerleader for a community that’s still hoping for a hip-hop brotherhood on par with that of Atlanta, Houston or New Orleans — one that toasts the multiplatinum, international success of several big-name acts.
“Proof and Dilla were two prime examples of people who attained a certain level of success and then came back home and tried to do things to help people get where they needed to be,” says Detroit rapper J. Hill. ” Unfortunately, we don’t have too many that made it in this game right now. Music is all about who you know, it’s all about relationships. We don’t have many powerful people who we know who can point us in the right direction and give us some guidance.”
PAINFUL NEWS
When Dilla died in February, days after releasing his much acclaimed “Donuts,” which he recorded almost entirely while stuck inside a California hospital room, it put Detroit hip-hop on pause.
With his group Slum Village and as a producer for many other big-name acts, he was the first person from Detroit who got a big taste of the national hip-hop scene. His streetwise but soulful and musically tight production style influenced some of the world’s biggest rap and R&B stars, from Kanye West to Janet Jackson to Erykah Badu, many of whom he worked with.
People in Detroit were just getting into the thick of mourning his passing when news came early on a Tuesday morning in April that his friend, rapper Proof, had been shot and killed in an after-hours club on Detroit’s east side.
It seemed as if the entire Detroit hip-hop crew gathered that Tuesday night at Northern Lights Lounge, a regular weekly meet-up spot, questioning the music they were making.
“When Jay Dee died, I looked at my MPC and was like, ‘I don’t think I can touch it,’ ” Paradime, Kid Rock’s DJ and a popular Detroit rapper himself, says about the sampler favored by hip-hop producers. “When Proof died, I was like, ‘I don’t think I can pick up my mic again.’ ”
Others shared his sentiments. “I went back and forth, like, ‘I’m done with this,’ ” says Hill, who has a bachelor’s degree in radio television communications from Wayne State University and is now working on a master’s in education. “But I look at it now like I love the music. I love to make music. I’m just going to make what I got in my heart and put it out here for the people.”
The overwhelming consensus was that the two Detroit hip-hop innovators would want the music to go on.
TIGHT CREW
Dilla and Proof were there back in the mid-’90s, trying to organize and rally a Detroit hip-hop scene, but so were others.
It was the beginning of a small fraternity of future rappers, producers and managers, and if you were even thinking about being in the business, you knew one of these guys, including D12, Phat Kat, Slum Village, DJ House Shoes and DJ Dez.
Fashion designer Maurice Malone’s Hip Hop Shop was ground zero for Detroit hip-hop.
In those early days, Proof and Dilla collaborated creatively and rose quickly to become the go-to guys on the hip-hop scene. Dilla came back to the shop with a record deal for production work for national artists. Proof was the guy who was taking meetings in places like New York, trying to drum up support of Detroit hip-hop.
Phat Kat was one of the first rappers in Detroit to score a national label deal with his group 1st Down in 1995. “Right now, it’s just going to take a lot of people to step up and just start being their own men,” he said. “That’s what it’s always been about from the beginning. Those two cats were always at the forefront. We’re going to keep it moving. Hopefully we get something positive out of this negative stuff. It ain’t going to stop. The music is going to still come out of here.”
Phat Kat, born Ronnie Watts, is upset with the way the music is being characterized.
Music has always been visceral — it’s been a way to keep out the generation before, a way to communicate in a metaphorical language that doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else outside of the genre. Hip-hop is no different, and there was violence long before it, says Phat Kat.
“What’s really been bugging me with the media is that people are trying to incorporate hip-hop with violence. Hip-hop ain’t got anything to do with violence. … It’s been violent before hip-hop. People are getting it twisted, thinking it’s what they see on TV,” Phat Kat says. “Hip-hop is on a respirator right now, and I’m just really trying to breathe life back into it.
Still, is it time for the music to change? Those on the hip-hop scene say it’d be disingenuous to ignore that Detroit is a high-crime city and that the roots of hip-hop are in reporting tales from the streets.
“I’m not knocking anybody,” says rapper Ren Cen. “By any means if you live it, speak what you live. The problem that I have with rappers is that they don’t tell the whole story. They don’t say if you kill this dude, you might get killed yourself or you’re going to get life or you might go to hell.”
There’s a certain level of responsibility, says Hill, that goes along with putting the music out.
“We have to watch how reckless we are with our lyrics. That’s not to say that I might not do certain things with my music. You have mature television; you have mature movies. And you have mature music,” Hill says. “Music will reflect the times. It’s going to reflect what’s going on. Whenever I’m having a tough time, I make my best music because I write a lot of truth. A certain amount of what’s going on is going to be what’s in your music. I’ve been living in Detroit city all my life. You see a lot of things. … You only can report on what you know.”
GOING FORWARD
All that aside, people are still optimistic that Detroit hip-hop is on the rise.”We’re in a building place right now,” says rapper Bareda a.k.a. Mr. Wrong of the rap outfit the Raw Collection. “The world is taking notice. It’s a lot of struggling artists in this city. It’s hard for an independent artist to get noticed in the city. I mean, we have to go up against major-label artists on the radio.”
Proof’s record label Iron Fist Records is working quickly to get music out. Later this year, it’ll be releasing an album called “Time Will Tell” that Proof recorded a few months ago in under 24 hours. The label is also working to put out music by Proof’s artists, including Woof Pack, Purple Gang and Supa MC.
“We’re still moving,” says Mario Butterfield, Proof’s hype man, who heads up the marketing and art department for the label. “He pretty much left us with all the pieces. We just have to put them in the right place. In his office, he has all of these various chessboards from around the world. Every time someone would come in he’d ask them if they played chess. So that’s what we’re doing — moving the pieces around and trying to figure out how to operate in this industry game.”
Guys like Phat Kat are moving tens of thousands of units overseas and many rappers and producers here make music their full-time job.
“With the passing of Dilla and Proof, I think it’s been like a reality check for Detroit hip-hop. A lot of people are burying the hatchet,” says rapper Guilty Simpson, birth name Byron Simpson. “People are letting bygones be bygones and getting everything in order. Hopefully we don’t have to experience another death of one of our hip-hop icons. I definitely see progress happening.”
Major labels are signing up local rappers and producers to create music. Recently, Bareda got signed to Tantrum/Universal Records and is expected to release an album with the label in early 2007, and Simpson, who is working with D12’s Denaun Porter, was out in Los Angeles earlier this week meeting with labels, including Stones Throw Records in Los Angeles, the same label that last worked with Jay Dee.
“Proof opened the door for everybody,” says his manager Mike Eckstein. “Now we just need to keep walking through it.”
Contact KELLEY L. CARTER at 313-222-8854 or carter@freepress.com.

What kind of person are you? Do you accept society and your entourages dictatorship easily without one single word or are you the kind of persons that dare to make a difference?
Have you ever noticed that many persons of the same age category are dressed quite the same when you walk down the streets? It can become so boring that one would be tempted to sing a sarcastic song entitled« Every hoe looks the same ». I am slowly getting fed up with society’s dictatorship that indicates people how to dress and how to behave according to their age and sex. Fuck all that.
I dont want to see a society made of pale robots. I am totally rebellious to the system and I fully assume it.
I dont act in order to look « correct » and « decent » according to society’s criteria. Love me or hate me, I will never act in order to make you feel comfortable with me. Accept me or reject me, I dont give a fuck.
I have been struggling for years to feel well in spirits and body. Now that I have reached a point of well being, I wont let anybody touch this.
I always act, talk and speak out in total harmony with myself. Yes, I am a rebel to a conditioned collective way of thinking. I don’t accept it and I won’t let society or individuals think in my place.
I am a person of strong personality and if you cant handle it, please stay away from me. I wont let anybody prevent me from being myself.
I flip the bird to those who dont like what I stand for. Im a rebel with a cause and I am proud of it.
It is all up to you to be a person with an attitude or another of societys billions of carbon copies. Make the right choice. It is all about personality and well being. Try to think about it twice before acting in a conventional way.

MC Bastard aka Andy shares the dream of any aspiring rapper: he struggles hard to make it-possibly big.
I recommend you MC Bastard’s Ds6 diss.
It is funny and well handled. Built on a Cypress Hill sample, the song ridicules an untalented English group made of racist pricks. The song has been made in response to a former diss addressed to MC Bastard.
Andy attacks what Ds6 stand for: racist beliefs. One thing is sure: no place for racists in the rap game, so Ds6- whose masculinity is questionable too- better resign. Lyrically the track is interesting too and enlightens Mc Bastard’s sense of humor.
Coldsville’s blues is a rhythmic track based on an electric guitar background. The song will take you by surprise: the rhymes are sick and the listener gets caught into the lyrical storm of the Coldville blues.
MC Bastard uses Eminem’s Sing For The Moment sample for The Moment and puts his own anxieties and hopes into the track. Feel the fight and the sorrows of an aspiring emcee.
The Revenge of Hollie is another crazy revenge against the skinhead group Ds6 that leaves those pseudo artists no chances of survival. Not only is the track musically rich, rhythmic, it is also lyrically interesting.
Gay ass haters will get punched in the nose in a funny way thanks to MC Bastard’s incredible sense of humor. The track is definitely worth your listen.
Did this increase your curiosity about Mc Bastard?
Find out more about him here.

MC Bastard from Washington…stay tuned folks:)

It is quite hard to define Detroit emcee Multi, because his style resembles nothing I heard till now.
I Gotta Bitch is an entertaining track that is built of rapid flute sounds and rhythmic drum and keyboard sounds. The rapid rhythm nicely introduces the « change of hoe » theme of the song.
Each bitch Multi describes is here for a precise purpose: one hoe who likes doggy style, another who likes to bounce around, a third one likes to pull her legs in the air and so on.
Watch Multi pimp his hoes and enjoy the track while he enumerates his many hoes .
Life Ain’t Nothing…but bitches and money…hear Ice Cube’s words into the Michigan emcee’s mouth. The song is actually a re-worked I Gotta Bitch musical background.
Multi transposes the Compton emcee’s words into a typical Michigan context. Check it out.
Get Back starts with some electric guitar sounds that introduce you into a quite offensive atmosphere. Multi gently reminds you that the streets of Detroit are all about realness. Bitches and snitches, stay away from him.
Let the violins lead you into a very rhythmic and quite euphoric song, Get It On. The hood anthem is definitely worth your attention. Lyrically and instrumentally, Multi did a good job.
Curious to know more about the Detroit emcee?
Check him out here.

Multi…stay tuned, folks:)

May 11, 2006
Email this Print this BY BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
The C.C.C. nightclub will close and its owners must pay fines under an agreement reached with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. (April 2006 photo by HUGH GRANNUM/Detroit Free Pres)
The nightclub where Detroit rapper Proof died during a fight with an Army veteran will close its doors for a year and pay fines for illegally operating after hours under an agreement with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, officials announced Wednesday. The C.C.C. club on 8 Mile was the place where Proof, 32, a close friend of Eminem and a member of the group D12, was shot three times in the head and chest after a fight at 4:30 a.m. April 11 — more than two hours after the club was required to close. Before his death, Proof, whose given name was Deshaun Holton, shot 35-year-old Keith Bender Jr., a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, police said.
Bender died a week later at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit.
Prosecutor Kym Worthy sued the club’s owners in Wayne County Circuit Court last month, calling the place a nuisance and citing other violent outbreaks and liquor violations over the past two years.
A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled today in front of Judge William Giovan, where parties on both sides are expected to announce the settlement. The fines are expected to be set at the hearing.
Worthy explained that state law for a nuisance violation only permits closure of a building for a year.
“We got everything we could under the law, and we got it very quickly,” she said. “We have learned from the untimely death of Keith Bender and Deshaun Holton that these clubs are not only dangerous to the patrons, but present serious quality-of-life issues for the law-abiding citizens that live near them.”
Under the agreement, the club owners will pay for a lock change, turn keys over to the prosecutor’s office, maintain upkeep and keep insurance and property taxes current. The owners will be allowed to inspect the club once a month.
If the terms of the settlement aren’t met, the prosecutor’s office has the ability to ask for permanent closure.
Bender’s aunt, Leitha Etheridge-Sims, said she was disappointed that the club won’t be completely shut down.
“Perhaps someone can look at that law and make some changes,” she said. “The family is disappointed that the C.C.C. can only be shut down for a year.
“I was hoping the prosecutor would send a message by closing it indefinitely.”
Alfred Thompson, who with his wife, Helen, owns Starlight Properties LLC, which owns the club, declined comment Wednesday.
Mario Etheridge, 28, who prosecutors say shot Proof, was charged Friday with gun felonies, but not with the killing. Police say Etheridge, a bouncer at the bar and Bender’s cousin, shot Proof in defense after the rapper shot Bender in a fight over a pool game.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office is still investigating the circumstances surrounding the shootings.
Worthy said her office is aggressively investigating other illegal after-hours clubs.
“People have come forward, and we are moving as quickly as we can to get those padlocked as well,” she said.
Contact BEN SCHMITT at 313-223-4296 or bcschmitt@freepress.com.

DETROIT (AP) – Rap group D12, which includes Eminem, plans to continue recording a new album despite the shooting death of bandmate Proof.
“If people think that because he’s not here we’re not going to keep doing what we’re doing, then they’re wrong,” said D12 member Denaun Porter, who goes by the rap name Kon Artis.
Proof, whose real name was Deshaun Holton, was shot to death last month at an after-hours bar on 8 Mile Road. Police say he was killed after shooting to death another man, Keith Bender Jr. Bender’s cousin faces weapons charges in Proof’s death while the Wayne County prosecutor’s office considers the possibility of more serious charges.
The group expects to resume recording next month after one its members, Swift, gets out of jail on a probation violation, Porter told the Detroit Free Press for a story Friday.

Rating: 4.5 stars
Compton’s back! Wanna travel through the streets of Compton with a true rider and listen to some good hip hop? Dresta Da Gangsta is here to guide you through his universe. I promise you that you will like what you’ll hear. So close your eyes and let your ears wide open for some moments of pure musical pleasure.
There are two many tracks on Dresta’s mixtape to review each of them. However, I will summarize the impressions I got from listening to it.
Time to wake up: don’t sleep on that artist!
Volume I
Track Nr 2 is introduced by some powerful instrumentals and lyrics. Dresta is back with his gangsta flow, bringing those beautiful Westcoast sounds to you. He is ready to murder you lyrically. Nobody talks better about the Compton ghetto and the streets of California than people who grew up there. Offensive, determined to take over, Dresta will make you feel his fight. You can’t fuck with him: he is real in his music and in his words.
On Volume I, I recommend you Dresta’s Lean Back Remix and his kinky Nr6 Dyke Over Night track.
Track Nr 4 is based on dark cello sounds that will make you feel the drama. Dresta is not here to please the music industry, he talks about the hood’s dramas. People in the hood are starving and Dresta shows no mercy in his words.
Track Nr 5 is rhythmic and will make you travel through the streets of Cali.
Compton’s Back is one of those melodic tracks that won’t leave the listeners indifferent and it says it all. The spirit of the hood of Compton is back. Expect some good Westcoast sounds again that go along with ghetto stories and bad bitches tales.
Volume II
The introduction to Volume II also finds Dresta sleeping and is a powerful wake up call that will lead you to track Nr2, a remix of Tupac and Eazy E’s How We Do. The Westcoast is back for those who doubted it. You can’t fuck with them OG’s.
Come Together is constructed with some rhythmic drum beats and soft piano sound. Feel a man on the run in the ghetto with his fellows. Dresta is not about the bling bling bullshit, he is a man who speaks out the truth and draws the streets the way they are.
The Realest In Rap is a beautiful track aimed at the haters. Very well handled instrumentally and lyrically, the song will make you realize that Dresta is the real deal in Compton. A man is ready to put Compton again on the map and to conquer the game.
Don’t miss Revenge a track that is beautifully remixed on Dr Dre instrumentals. Dresta’s voice sounds quite surrealistic and the emcee dedicates the track to all the soldiers locked behind the gates, including his brother BG Knocc Out.
« Compton’s Finest » has some delightful moments of pure hip hop to offer to his listeners. Gun talks, bad bitches, racial discrimination and certified gangstas trying to survive in the hood are part of the program.
Download Dresta’ s Dirty West mixtape, Volume I and II here.

Never heard of Dresta? A.Wicker aka Dresta is BG Knocc Out’s elder brother. Both men grew up in the streets of Compton, used to hang out with Compton legend Eazy E.
Their Real Brothas album that came out in 1994
After long years of absence, Dresta Da Gangsta is back, stronger than ever, ready to take over the Westcoast with his tight sounds and lyrics. Real in his words, Dresta is dropping bombs and speading like a forest fire. Dresta tells you about life in the ghetto the way it is.
Don’t miss his recent song, Crip Blue. The beautifully handled track has a blues/ reggae flavor. Feel the nostalgia and envision black people’s pain.
Too many details can make you feel blue when you live in the hood: black men shooting on black men, haters claiming unity of the Westcoast when all they have are big egos, black kids growing up without their fathers. Blood spills, Death Row executions, double standards whether you’re black or white. Sad situations created by a greedy and racist government.
The words are raw and describe reality in its nudity. Listen to Dresta’s complaint to the Lord and feel compassionate towards folks who only have one wish: be treated equally and breathe.
Dyke Over Night is an entertaining track. Based on piano, violins and keyboard and rhythmic drum sounds, the song will lead you into a very kinky atmosphere.
Isn’t a threesome most of men’s dream?
Ok, follow Dresta’s trying to turn his regular girlfriend into a lesbian over night. Feel the excitement and how Dresta slowly leads his girl into an unknown « paradise » made of sensuality and pleasure.
Drums and keyboards introduce We Gon Blow. The rhythmic song introduces you into a real G’s fight. No place for the wankstas in his worlds. Dresta is currently trying to get his brother BG Knocc Out out of jail. Be sure of it, both men are gonna blow.
Dresta and his brother are one of the most beautiful demonstration of talent I could see recently. Hip hop is in the state of 911 and it is in the urgent need of artists who keep it real in their words and music.
Curious about Compton artist Dresta Da Gangsta?
You can check out his personal website and his my space account, then.
More Dresta to come in my upcoming reviews of his Dirty West mixtape Vol I and II.