From 8 Mile Detroit to world tours, money, booze, drugs & chart topping albums, it’s been somewhat of a journey for Proof of D12, but speaking to him you wouldn’t know it. Whilst I could be forgiven for expecting a half an hour chat about how dope it is to be Eminem’s best friend or how many hoochies they fucked last tour, Proof is much more at home conversing about the conspiracies of Motown and subsequent blackballing of Detroit, the life & painful demise of Jerry Garcia and how the drug riddled lifestyle of his earlier years in the industry almost killed him. Whilst the links to Eminem are undeniable, they are downplayed by Proof, “I don’t know where it got misconstrued or how it got misconstrued, D12 all were solo artists, whoever get on first come back and get the other ones. People seem to forget that fact, that we are solo artists” and with D12 becoming one of the highest selling rap groups in the world it was time to remind people of that fact.

He has recently started his own label, Iron Fist Records, “to be able to give some other people a chance” but for this month though the focus is on his debut LP Record ‘Searching For Jerry Garcia’. He is also fiercely independent, wanting to “be able to wheel & deal on (his) own, to get out there like that and on the same token, to find (himself) a new high.” He gets “thrills & rushes off trying to get a label off the ground without any help” and refused to let the project be released on Shady or Aftermath or anything that would guarantee him instant success. Clearly being as famous, rich & connected isn’t quite challenging enough for Big Proof. Despite his notoriety you can still find him having beer skulling competitions with fans after shows and at dingy open mic nights in downtown Detroit, fame has destroyed a lot of people in the music industry and whilst his album is full of Bravado, Proof is an intelligent & down to earth Gangster rapper.

With hip hop in a sad state of Reebok & Pepsi commercials, one may say that Eminem & D12’s contributions over the last few years can be held partially responsible for the demise, but Proof’s album has taken a turn for the classic instead of the commercial, he finds the state of music today equally as saddening. “I mean me personally, it’s sad, I say sad because hip hop was never about doing what somebody else was doing. Somehow the corporate people, sponsorships & people that invest money in hip hop now, they look to have an artist sound like another artist, it’s like the new thing & shit. I think that’s very sad, I mean there is already a 50 cent, don’t go sounding like 50 cent, there is already one” and one is more than enough.

Over the past ten years Hip Hop has become a multimillion dollar business when it used to be a few kids trying to get some attention for being fresh, in Proof’s case even just a name on a flier was enough. So how has the motivation of MC’s changed? When I was rapping, all I wanted to do was to get my name on a flier, at a party. It was for very different reasons, my times doing it, it was never about gettin money. Now all these people come up rhymes are like ‘I gotta get on, I gotta get this money’ their whole view of the shit is fucked up and wrong.” And with kids today listening to records like Diddy & Sweat/Suit instead of 36 Chambers, Apocolypse 91 & The Chronic it isn’t difficult to see why.

But action is necessary to make change and with Proof’s debut Searching for Jerry Garcia we are presented with a more intelligent alternative to stereotypical Gangster Rap. Whilst the beats & guests definitely fit the Gangster cardboard cutout, Proof has given the genre a slice of maturity & honesty that truly makes the cut standout above the rest. But what does any of this have to do with Jerry Garcia? “I was going through a stage in my life, fuckin with drugs and not eating right, shit like that, poor diet. Then I saw this documentary and they said that Jerry Garcia’s demise (and ultimate death) came from poor diet, drugs & stress. And I felt like, shit I’m with Jerry on that one. A lot of people just think it was a gimmick to fuck with the dead and shit like that, but that was a common bond that I found with that guy. Then the more I got into him the more I see that he was for real, a real artist. He is the epitomy of what an artist is.” And with that the concept was born and Proof was inspired to be as true to his art as he could be.

Part of such truth is his patriotism of Detroit and his commitment to promoting the local scene, one might say he is the antithesis of the days of Motown. “Motown to me is full of shit. The reason being shit is they never left any inkling of what it is to have a musical industry here. They just picked up and left, and maybe that’s just my personal gripe but I always feel like Detroit was blackballed from the city but we were once the Mecca of music, the Mecca of music was Motown and there is not a shred of evidence of that here. I think that’s just fucked up.” His gripe and passion are reflected in his lyricism and his more mature & less reckless attitude towards life shine throughout the record. Whilst there are the token slut jams & the juvenile jams the album is much more quality than any of the gangland shit out at the moment and it is instores now.

Proof’s album ‘Searching For Jerry Garcia’ is out now through Iron Fist/Shogun.