The days of concept albums appeared to be a thing of the past. Recently, people have been concentrating on quantity over quality – and real music lovers often feel cheated when purchasing a CD. Proof, an essential ingredient of D-12 is dropping his debut and not only is it a concept album, it is packed full of tracks that attempt to conform listeners from other genres. The album’s laced with murder, tales of encouraged suicide, and names of deceased legends, Searching for Jerry Garcia, is an album that seems content in ignoring the club scene.
AllHipHop.com asks Proof on how he stays fit, his sleep habits, and a look at Proof’s sensitivity in changing one song title. “Dead Heads” can look for Jerry Garcia all day, but you’ll find D-12’s Proof kickin’ it right here with AllHipHop.
AllHipHop.com: What’s the deal Proof? You got a lot going on right now, ready to drop your debut album, the Anger Management Tour; I guess we could say you’re keeping busy…
Proof: Exactamundo! [Laughter] Yeah we just shot the video to go with “Gurls Wid Da Boom,” which was produced by the Slum Village producer. B.R. Gunna. Then of course we are doing the Anger Management Tour, where our buses can’t seem to stay on the road.
AllHipHop.com: You getting much sleep?
Proof: I’m always sleeping, that’s one thing I do make sure, that I get my sleep, man.
AllHipHop.com: Your solo project drops August 9th, how long has that been in the making?
Proof: I would say about two years. When I first started the label, it got robbed a little bit and the thing that happened was D-12. So I had to put everything aside, as it was D-12 that got me into the game and I will always pay homage to that, so the album got put to the side.
AllHipHop.com: The title of the album is Searching for Jerry Garcia, an interesting title in itself. There are numerous tracks which contain other dead rock icons, such as Kurt Kobain, the whole take on John Lennon’s Murder in the track “72 and Central,” what influence did these guys have on you?
Proof: It’s exactly that, they were icons within the music industry. The biggest things about those guys are that they were artists. Today in the industry, man, you get a lot of the artists who duplicate what is already out there. They make it like everyone is manufactured as a product; they don’t even want to be an artist no more.
AllHipHop.com: You feel that way as an artist or a fan, or as both?
Proof: Yeah, both as artist and as a fan.
AllHipHop.com: Now your album is undoubtedly a concept album, something we don’t really see a lot of nowadays.
Proof: It is most definitely a concept album. I mean everyone already knows I can rap already. I mean I wanted a concept that people could relate to and grab a hold of. I didn’t want to talk about killing everybody all the time, or bling this or that. I mean I bling…
AllHipHop.com: Yeah but you don’t need to talk about it all the time.
Proof: Yeah man, it’s so stupid.
AllHipHop.com: Your album is laced with death, dead rockers, mobsters, women being encouraged to jump out of buildings to their death. It’s very dark and pessimistic, yet still sarcasm is prevalent.
Proof: The track “Jump B#####,” about the woman jumping off the roof was supposed to be called “Eric Clapton Junior,” but I changed it. That would have offset the girl theme and that was one of the first tracks I recorded two years ago. I thought it should go on the album as it was originally mean to be on it. I changed the name because I didn’t want to insult Eric Clapton, another legend like that, as that was his son who fell out of a window and that’s something I remember happening. It’s a druggy song and also a D-12 sort of atmosphere joints, you know just one of those crazy songs. I recorded about seventy songs for the album. It was completed 100% two years ago, then it went to only 20% and then 40% done, you know what I mean?
AllHipHop.com: You are stated as saying Jerry Garcia’s demise was due to three factors; drugs, stress and poor diet. Aren’t all these three things we could change ourselves if we wanted?
Proof: Right, exactly. You could say we control our own destiny. It’s up to us; really the thing is we don’t take ourselves seriously, exactly as we should. I mean, diet is so important.
AllHipHop.com: Yeah you see big names dropping crazy pounds.
Proof: People who go on diets are taking themselves seriously. It takes a lot of will to really go on a diet and do that; you know lose all that weight. I mean we root for Oprah when she loses her weight, its like, “Wow, look at Oprah.” It makes you feel good. A lot of people don’t really have the will power to really want to lose weight or wake up and do 30 push ups or sit ups every morning, they have no will to do it. You have to have the will to want to do this. I mean I think when you see someone else doing it, it gives you that inspiration. I mean something as simple as diet can inspire people. I bet with Missy, people love her to death because of what she has done, she will inspire people to watch their diets and I think that’s a great thing.
AllHipHop.com: Do you watch your diet?
Proof: Yeah but I drink a lot of beer, so I am always working out, trying to keep that down. So I don’t really get out of shape.
AllHipHop.com: What about your work out regime?
Proof: I do a little something when I am prepping my rhymes. I do like 30 sit ups.
AllHipHop.com: It’s said that exercise reduces stress, what you think about that?
Proof: Yeah it does. I mean people who are dieting and exercising are wanting to improve themselves. Exercise is a part of diet, so I know exercise got to reduce stress.