[2] His father, McKinley Jackson, was a music producer who left to pursue his career prior to Holton's birth.

[citation needed] Then Bizarre decided one of Proof's friends, who was a rapper (from 6th Mile, Detroit) named MC Bugz, should be in the group.

Early individual accomplishments included being featured in The Source's "Unsigned Hype" column in 1999 and nearly winning the 1998 Blaze Battle.

Proof appeared as Lil' Tic, a freestyle rapper who rap battles the main character, B-Rabbit, played by Eminem.

[6][better source needed] To capitalize on the publicity from the film, Proof released a six-song EP called Electric CoolAid Acid Testing.

[7] Proof also starred in a cameo role, alongside the rest of D12 (except for Eminem), in The Longest Yard, appearing as "Basketball Convicts" during the credits.

[clarification needed] Proof released a solo album featuring collaborations with 50 Cent, Method Man, Nate Dogg, B-Real of Cypress Hill, T3 of Slum Village, Obie Trice, King Gordy, Eminem and D12.

[citation needed] Called Searching for Jerry Garcia, the album was released on August 9, 2005, on his own Iron Fist Records label in conjunction with Alliance Entertainment's IDN Distribution, ten years to the day following Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia's death.

[citation needed] On April 11, 2006, Holton was shot to death after a dispute broke out during a game of billiards at the CCC Club on 8 Mile Road in Detroit.

His lawyer, David Gorosh, accused police and the media of being "reckless" for suggesting that his client fired the first shots without having any hard evidence.

[15][16] Authorities determined that Etheridge was acting lawfully in defense of another; however, he was found guilty of carrying a concealed weapon and discharging a firearm inside a building.

[17] On April 19, 2006, a service for Holton was held in the Fellowship Chapel in Detroit to a full house of 2,660 people, including his friends Eminem, Royce Da 5'9”, 50 Cent, and thousands more mourning outside.

[19] Seven months after Holton's death, his close friend Reginald "Mudd" Moore, who was with him at the nightclub, gave an exclusive interview with XXL magazine where he told a different account of what happened that night.