JAY DEE AND PROOF ARE MOURNED BY DETROIT HIP-HOP
It was more than a loss of two innovative players on the Detroit hip-hop scene.
Producer and rapper Jay Dee and rapper and label owner Proof championed Detroit music — and helped export the city’s musical imprint to a national audience.
They died within two months of each other in 2006, Jay Dee in February from complications of a rare blood disease and kidney failure, and Proof in April during a violent gun battle that also left another man dead.
“2006 has been an awful year,” says Detroit rapper Trick Trick. “I believe the devil set up in an office building downtown. Detroit just caught some hell this year.”
It would have been understandable had the music come to a standstill. But it didn’t.
Earlier this month, Eminem released “Eminem Presents: The Re-Up,” which debuted as the No. 2 album in the country. Along with Em, the compilation featured several Detroit MCs, including members of D12. Em’s rap posse D12, of which Proof was a member, is planning to release an album as early as the spring.
Detroit also boasts a bevy of up-and-coming hip-hop producers, including guys like Black Milk, Nick Speed, Young RJ and Sick Notes, all of whom are getting to work on tracks by national recording artists.
By Kelley L. Carter, Free Press music critic
