Citizen Kane was a Canadian hip hop duo, active in the late 1990s and early 2000s."Hometown hip-hop; Toronto is becoming a hotbed of hard rhymes". Toronto Star, December 12, 1999. 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"Dion leads Juno nominees; Ladies and Twain also up for awards". The Globe and Mail, January 28, 1999. and their album Deliverance at the Juno Awards of 2000."Alanis a Juno Junkie: Morissette leads pack but Prozzak, Bachman aren't that far behind". The Province, February 3, 2000.
Raised in the public housing of Scarborough, Toronto,Raisin' Kane: A Rapumentary AlisonDuke.com. Accessed on July 20, 2019.Raisin' Kane: A Rapumentary National Film Board of Canada. Accessed on July 20, 2019. the group consisted of rappers Jeff "J-Spade" Duke, a first-generation Canadian, and Rob "Blye" Paris, a Black Nova Scotian; they were managed by Adrian Perry. Duke started in the music business as a dancer for Michie Mee and Dream Warriors."It's not about money; Citizen Kane are in hip hop strictly for the culture". Waterloo Region Record, December 16, 1999.
They released their debut single, "Soul Survivor" in 1995, and followed up with a number of singles before releasing The Epic in 1997. They followed up with Deliverance in 1999;"Citizen Kane: Deliverance". Exclaim!, November 1, 1999. 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."Citizen Kane film salutes native rap". Hamilton Spectator, March 1, 2001.
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.(Mixtape) Citizen Kane – "Scartown Unreleased Classics" The Come Up Show. Accessed on July 28, 2019. Several of their singles, including "Soul Survivor", "Black Rain" and "Raisin' Kane", were reissued in 2018.
Discography The Epic (1997) Deliverance (1999)
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