Future

"I had a lotta names, baby - The most jealous names. I used to be called Maximum, Brimstone, Godfather D - None of 'em worked, you-know-what-Ima-sayin'? 'Til one day someone said I was the future of hip-hop in Detroit. And that was it."

- Future

David Porter (also known as "Future"), is the deuteragonist and B-Rabbit's close friend who hosts the underground rap battles at the Shelter. He often tries to encourage B-Rabbit to battle even after his previous "choke act" at the Shelter.

And Future also helps Rabbit by signing him up at the shelter to face the members of Free World and leader Papa Doc's defending title, the actor was played by Mekhi Phifer, He is mentioned in the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning song "Lose Yourself" by Eminem.

Background
Mekhi Phifer played one of the main characters in the 2002 film 8 Mile, but he nearly passed on the role. During an interview with Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club, the Harlem-born actor revealed that when he was first approached about 8 Mile:

“It was fun,” he said. “''It was interesting because when it first came up I was like ‘It sounded cheesy.’ I was like ‘nah.’ And I was due to start ‘ER’ actually right before the movie started. And I was like ‘Nah, I’m just gonna start the show, man.''”

It wasn’t until Phifer read the script and met Eminem in Detroit, that he began to gain interest in the film. He would ultimately go on to star in 8 Mile as Future, a character loosely based off of Eminem’s good friend, Proof, In addition to starring alongside Eminem in 8 Mile, Phifer had the opportunity to work with another Hip Hop artist while filming Paid In Full, directed by Charles Stone III. During an interview with The Breakfast Club, Phifer discussed what drew him to the film, which also stars Harlem rapper Camron.

Appearance in 8 Mile
His first appearance, Future is seen assisting Jimmy in getting into a battle with Lil' Tic (played by Proof, Eminem's childhood friend) at the shelter, but Rabbit froze during the battle, Following Lil' Tic's freestyle, Rabbit "chokes" in the battle and leaves, Future made the second appearance on Jimmy's car, he said that he signed him up to another battle, Future was in a car with Jimmy and his friends when they noticed a fight in the middle of a parking lot. Future joins in, invites Jimmy to freestyle, and is impressed by his rap skills, but is soon interrupted by Sol.

Afterward, Tha Free World crashes the rap battle, Lyckety-Splyt stands on the car, and taunts Jimmy's crew, B-Rabbit responds by making him fall on the car he was on and then a fight ensues, until it was broken up by Wink, Future also assists Rabbit in fighting the crew while he reaches up to it, until Cheddar pulls out Papa Doc's gun, frightening everyone, and is ordered to put it away before killing someone, which Bob does, but as he tucks it into his pants, he shoots himself in the leg, and is rushed to the hospital, where he slowly recovered.

While Rabbit gets make fun of by Tha Free World for free-styling at the shelter with Cheddar Bob, Future comes in, the crew then leaves, he encourages Rabbit to battle the first 2 members of Tha Free World, Lyckety-Splyt and Lotto, After battling both of them, he hypes him up on the shelter by showing the crowd's support, After the battle with Papa Doc, Future whispers to Rabbit that they should host battles together but Rabbit responds to him with him being the only host, Rabbit then leaves.

Trivia

 * From his second appearance, Future and Jimmy's abusive father, Greg Buehl, said to have been both attended high-school together.


 * Proof, Eminem's childhood friend, had a part of his semi-autobiographical film known as 8 Mile, which was loosely based on the life of Eminem. Proof was also the clear inspiration for Future because he was the organizer of "rap battles" in the movie just as Proof had done for years in Detroit.
 * Mekhi Phifer, the actor behind B-Rabbit's "Uncle Tom" friend Future, was set to fly to Detroit to complete the movie's audition process. However, the scheduled date was two days after the infamous September 11 attack. The actor, who lived in New York at that time, was too shaky to get on a plane at that moment. He almost quit auditioning, but he did anyway and ended up landing the role.
 * Mekhi Phifer had good memories in making 8 Mile and wanted to make another film with Eminem.
 * It's unclear whether it happened on the set of 8 Mile or before, but he's a good friend of Marshall Mathers, so it's easy to imagine that the film would have been easier to shoot if the two of them were already friends.
 * Eminem mentioned his name on his Lose Yourself song: "Theres no movie, Theres no Mekhi Phifer."