The rapper Proof, Eminem’s right-hand man and a member of his D12 group, was shot dead in Detroit yesterday. Proof, born Deshaun Holton, was shot in the head at an after-hours club on Eight Mile Road.

Police said that shooting broke out after an altercation at the CCC club shortly before 5am. Proof was rushed to hospital in a private car but was dead on arrival. An unidentified second man, who was also shot in the head, was in a critical condition. No suspects were arrested at the scene.

Proof, 32, was one of Detroit’s original “battle rappers” who waged verbal duels with all comers. He formed D12 with friends he met at the Hip Hop Shop in the city and acted as Eminem’s “hypeman” on stage.

Proof released his first solo album, Searching for Jerry Garcia, last summer, and in January he was best man when Eminem remarried his high-school sweetheart — a union that recently collapsed for the second time.

Another member of Eminem’s entourage, Obie Trice, narrowly survived when he was shot and wounded while driving on a Detroit freeway on New Year’s Eve.

- Malibu: Child welfare officials and a police officer visited the home of Britney Spears last night but would not reveal the purpose of their visit. In February Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services officials visited the singer’s home after photographs were published showing her driving with her four-month-old son, Sean Preston, in her lap rather than in a car seat. (AP)

Explore Music

• CD Reviews

• Live Reviews

• Classical

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010