Kareem Blake (born March 27, 1975), better known by his

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Choclair, is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

. He was one of the most successful Canadian rappers in Canada in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Choclair has been nominated for six

Juno Awards The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

, winning four.

Career

Blake, of Jamaican descent, was born in

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, in east

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. Starting at the age of 11, he followed in his older brother's footsteps, and decided to become a rapper. Blake attended

St. John Paul II Catholic Secondary School , motto_translation = Praised be Jesus Christ , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic , founded = , schoolboard = Toronto Catholic District School Board , superintendent = Ryan Peterson , trustee = Nancy Crawford , number = 531 / 7515 ...

, which is when he first started performing under the name "Choclair". In 1995, he released his debut single, "Twenty One Years", on his own independent label,

Knee Deep Records Knee Deep Records (also known as Kneedeep Records) was a Canadian independent record label, specializing in hip hop music. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Knee Deep was originally a home recording studio. The label was founded in 1995 by record produ ...

. In 1997, he released the EP '' What It Takes'', which was accompanied by a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

featuring

Jully Black Jully Black (born Jullyann Inderia Gordon Black, November 8, 1977) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, producer and actress. She has collaborated and written for many artists, including Nas, Saukrates, Choclair, Kardinal Offishall, Destiny's Child ...

. ''What It Takes'' won the " Best Rap Recording" award at the

1997 Juno Awards The Juno Awards of 1997, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 9 March 1997 in Hamilton, Ontario at a ceremony in the Copps Coliseum. Jann Arden was host for the major ceremonies which were broad ...

. By 1998, Choclair had released eleven records, including the first international releases for

Saukrates Karl Amani Wailoo (born March 6, 1978), better known by his stage name Saukrates (; "Socrates"), is a Canadian rapper, singer, and record producer. He is the co-founder of Capitol Hill Music, and lead singer of the hip-hop/ R&B group Big Black L ...

Kardinal Offishall Jason Drew Harrow (born May 11, 1976), better known by his stage name Kardinal Offishall (), is a Canadian rapper, record producer, DJ, and record executive. Often credited as Canada's " hip hop ambassador", he is regarded as one of the country ...

Solitair Sheldon Pitt, better known by his stage name Solitair, is a Canadian rapper and record producer from Toronto, Ontario. He is a founding member of the now defunct Black Jays record label and production team. Solitair has been producing hip hop an ...

, Marvel, and Tara Chase from Toronto's music scene. Choclair, with the Rascalz, contributed to the hip hop song "

Northern Touch "Northern Touch" is a Canadian hip hop single, which was released in 1998 by Rascalz in collaboration with Checkmate, Kardinal Offishall, Thrust and Choclair. It is one of the most important individual songs in the history of Canadian hip hop, wh ...

", which received two

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

s and a

MuchMusic Video Award The iHeartRadio MMVAs were an annual awards show broadcast on Much to honour the year's best music videos that was last held in 2018. Originally debuting in 1990 as the Canadian Music Video Awards, the awards were renamed in 1995 to the MuchMu ...

, and achieved lasting popularity among Canadian hip hop fans and has been labelled by critics as a "hiphop anthem". Choclair then expanded his team and joined

Virgin Music Canada Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

in July 1998. In 1999, he signed with

Priority Records Priority Records is an American distribution company and record label known for artists including N.W.A, Ice-T, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Big L, Silkk the Shocker and Westside Connection. It also distributed hip hop record labels including Death Row R ...

, and released his debut album ''

Ice Cold ''Ice Cold'' is the debut studio album of Canadian rapper Choclair, released November 2, 1999 in Canada and March 14, 2000 in the United States. It was released on major label Virgin/Priority Records. The album's early success was driven by the fi ...

'', produced by Saukrates. The album was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

in Canada (50,000 copies)"Retrospective Reviews: Choclair’s ‘Ice Cold'"
''Chart Attack'', Review by Shawn Despres and spawned the hit single " Let's Ride", produced by

. Let's Ride reached #38 on the Canadian ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Singles Chart. ''Ice Cold'' won the Juno award for "Best Rap Recording" in 2000. Later that year, "Let's Ride" won a

SOCAN The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a Canadian performance rights organization that represents the performing rights of more than 135,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. The organization collects ...

award and a MuchMusic award. He was presented with a 2001 Urban Music award from SOCAN. Also in 2001 he opened the Music Without Borders concert at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. On March 5, 2002, Choclair released his next album, ''Memoirs of Blake Savage'', which included a lot of drug-related lyrics. He released the single "Skunk" from that album, which featured

Kurupt Ricardo Emmanuel Brown (born November 23, 1972), better known by his stage name Kurupt, is an American rapper and record producer who aided gangsta rap's rise via 1990s verses helping set lasting trends. He is one half of the rap duo Tha Dogg Po ...

Tha Dogg Pound Tha Dogg Pound is an American hip hop duo made up of rappers Kurupt and Daz Dillinger. They were signed to Death Row Records in their early careers and were key to the label's success. Kurupt and Daz went on to release solo albums starting in ...

. After parting ways with Virgin Music, Choclair started his own independent label Greenhouse Music in partnership with Sextant Records/EMI Music Canada. On June 17, 2003, he released the album ''Flagrant'', which won a Juno Award as best rap recording in 2004. He also released other Canadian hip hop albums in conjunction with Sextant Records and

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

. Greenhouse followed that with the release of ''My Demo'', a collection of Choclair's early underground recordings. In 2006, Choclair released the album, ''Flagship''. He was also featured on

Karl Wolf Carl Abou Samah ( ar, كارل أبو سمح; born April 18, 1979), better known by his stage name Karl Wolf, is a Lebanese-Canadian musician based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has been a singer, songwriter, and producer since 2001, releasing ...

's single, "Desensitize". In 2018, Choclair and other members of the team who recorded "Northern Touch" performed the song at the 2018 Juno Awards ceremony. Also in 2018, Choclair joined Classified and

Maestro Fresh-Wes Wesley "Wes" Williams (born March 31, 1968) is a Canadian rapper, record producer, actor, and author. He is known professionally by his stage names Maestro Fresh Wes (formerly Maestro Fresh-Wes) or Maestro as a musician, and is credited by his ...

on the "Canadian Classic Tour"."HIP-HOP LEGENDS CLASSIFIED, CHOCLAIR AND MAESTRO VISIT THE CAPITAL FOR CANADIAN CLASSIC TOUR"
''Shifter Magazine'', Oct 15, 2018

Discography

Albums

*''

'' (1999) *''Memoirs of Blake Savage'' (2002) *''Flagrant'' (2003) *''My Demo'' (2003) *''Flagship'' (2006)

EPs

*'' What It Takes'' (1997)

Singles

References

External links

Choclair's Official WebsiteChoclair
at MySpace
Smooth as Choclair
— Canadian hip hop artist reveals the secrets of seduction — by Denise Ing, Varsity Staff
Word Magazine ArticleNOW Magazine ArticleChoclair Brings Canadian Hip-Hop On U.S. Tour
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choclair 1975 births Living people People from Scarborough, Toronto Canadian people of Jamaican descent Black Canadian musicians Canadian male rappers Rappers from Toronto Priority Records artists Virgin Records artists Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year winners 20th-century Canadian rappers 21st-century Canadian rappers 20th-century Canadian male musicians 21st-century Canadian male musicians