Citizen Kane | |
---|---|
Origin | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Genres | Canadian hip hop |
Years active | 1995–2005 |
Labels | Treehouse Records |
Past members | Jeff "J-Spade" Duke Rob "Blye" Paris |
Citizen Kane was a Canadian hip hop duo, active in the late 1990s and early 2000s. [1] They were most noted as two-time Juno Award nominees for Rap Recording of the Year, for their EP The Epic at the Juno Awards of 1999 [2] and their album Deliverance at the Juno Awards of 2000. [3]
Raised in the public housing of Scarborough, Toronto, [4] [5] the group consisted of rappers Jeff "J-Spade" Duke, a first-generation Canadian, and Rob "Blye" Paris, a Black Nova Scotian; [5] they were managed by Adrian Perry. [1] Duke started in the music business as a dancer for Michie Mee and Dream Warriors. [6]
They released their debut single, "Soul Survivor" in 1995, and followed up with a number of singles before releasing The Epic in 1997. [1] They followed up with Deliverance in 1999; [7] their efforts to promote Deliverance, in the face of Canadian hip hop's struggle to gain commercial and critical attention in that era, were filmed by Duke's sister Alison for the National Film Board of Canada documentary Raisin' Kane: A Rapumentary, which was released in 2001. [8]
They released a couple of further singles after Deliverance, but broke up before releasing another album. In 2012, TopLeft Recordings released the mixtape Scartown Unreleased Classics, composed of tracks recorded by the group from 2001 to 2005, which were intended for a second album. [9] Several of their singles, including "Soul Survivor", "Black Rain" and "Raisin' Kane", were reissued in 2018.
Dream Warriors were a Canadian hip hop duo from Toronto, Ontario, comprising King Lou and Capital Q. Described as "a pair of deft, intelligent rappers" by John Bush of AllMusic, they were major contributors to the jazz rap movement of the early 1990s. Their 1991 debut album, And Now the Legacy Begins, was cited by Bush as one of the finest alternative hip hop records of the golden era. Before the release of their second album Subliminal Simulation in 1994, the duo became a group with the addition of rapper Spek and DJ Luv. In 1996, they released a third album, The Master Plan, before the two new members left the group a year later. Though their subsequent releases did not garner similar commercial success as their debut, the duo released a well-received greatest hits album in 1999. Their final album, The Legacy Continues..., was released in 2002.
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The Epic is an EP by Canadian hip hop duo Citizen Kane, released in 1997, by independent label Treehouse Records. It was nominated for Best Rap Recording at the 1999 Juno Awards.
Deliverance is the debut studio album by Canadian hip hop group Citizen Kane, released on September 14, 1999, by independent label Treehouse Records. It was nominated for Best Rap Recording at the 2000 Juno Awards. The 2001 documentary Raisin' Kane: A Rapumentary details the promotion and release of the album.
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