Citizen Kane (band)

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]

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

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.

Discography

• The Epic (1997)
• Deliverance (1999)

References

1. "Hometown hip-hop ; Toronto is becoming a hotbed of hard rhymes". Toronto Star, December 12, 1999.
2. "Dion leads Juno nominees; Ladies and Twain also up for awards". The Globe and Mail, January 28, 1999.
3. "Alanis a Juno Junkie: Morissette leads pack but Prozzak, Bachman aren't that far behind". The Province, February 3, 2000.
4. Raisin' Kane: A Rapumentary AlisonDuke.com. Accessed on July 20, 2019.
5. Raisin' Kane: A Rapumentary National Film Board of Canada. Accessed on July 20, 2019.
6. "It's not about money; Citizen Kane are in hip hop strictly for the culture". Waterloo Region Record, December 16, 1999.
7. "Citizen Kane: Deliverance". Exclaim!, November 1, 1999.
8. "Citizen Kane film salutes native rap". Hamilton Spectator, March 1, 2001.
9. (Mixtape) Citizen Kane – "Scartown Unreleased Classics" The Come Up Show. Accessed on July 28, 2019.