Documentary on rapper Proof to make Detroit Premiere(Detnews article)

Adam Graham / Detroit News Pop Music Writer
‘Time-A-Tell’ premiere
7 p.m. Thursday
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
315 E. Warren Ave., Detroit
Tickets free
Call (248) 773-2773 to R.S.V.P.
Two-and-a-half months before he was murdered at an after-hours club in Detroit, Proof set out to write and record an entire album in a 24-hour period.
“Time-A-Tell,” a 74-minute documentary chronicling the frenzied recording sessions, premieres Thursday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, one day after the one-year anniversary of Proof’s death.
“You see how focused he is on his music, how intense he is,” says DJ Jewels Baby — aka Julius Myers — who posed the 24-hour challenge to Proof in Jackson, Mich., in January 2006. “This is a chance to see his greatness.”
Proof, who gained worldwide fame as Eminem’s right-hand man onstage and in the group D12, got together with Jewels later that month at Jewels’ home studio on Detroit’s west side and sat down to write an album’s worth of rhymes. Sure, Red Bull helped them stay awake as the clock ticked away, but more than that, it was the spirit of creativity that drove them. “It was almost like we were kids again,” Jewels says.
Proof’s mother, Sherallene Holton, is looking forward to seeing the film for the first time.
“I’m happy there is something positive that’s going to be presented in (Proof’s) honor,” she says. “It will represent his talent at its best.”
Proof, an integral figure in Detroit’s hip-hop scene, was gunned down at the CCC club in the wee hours of April 11, 2006, at the age of 32.
Before being shot, Proof fatally shot Keith Bender Jr., a U.S. military veteran.
“Time-A-Tell” presents Proof “the way I would want people to see my son,” Holton says. “He was so focused about his music, and he was always reaching back and giving to the hip-hop community.”
Jewels is planning to release “Time-A-Tell” as an album, as well, but the project is “still in the works,” he says. “I’m making sure it gets its proper justice.”
You can reach Adam Graham at (313) 222-2284 or agraham@detnews.com.