Adding to the controversy around Rolling Stone India's August 2021 cover that features artists Dhee and Shan Vincent de Paul, the latter has released a track that addresses the social media abuse that he received over the past few days. After director Pa Ranjith tweeted about Arivu's exclusion from the cover, many social media users questioned Dhee and Shan Vincent de Paul about it. A section of users also abused the artists although Ranjith did not mention them in his tweet. Responding to this, Shan's track talks about his identity as an Eelam Tamil. However, he has also dubbed Ranjith as a "snakey director” and alleged that the latter didn't want him to be part of his film Sarpatta Parambarai, and that it was composer Santhosh Narayanan who had insisted on in.
Titled 'Take Cover', the track describes how Shan was informed about the controversy on Twitter through a friend. He raps about how he was shocked to come across hate messages. He says that he has no dispute with artist Arivu, and also mentions his struggle as an Eelam Tamil. However, he goes on to attack Pa Ranjith, calling him “Little Snakey Director Coming out of the Woodwork. Adding fuel to the fire knowing that it would divide us.”
Shan claims that Ranjith is a hypocrite for speaking about the erasure of Arivu’s contributions from the cover story while not crediting him for the English lyrics of 'Neeye Oli' in his tweet. Further accusing Ranjith of trying to remove him from the 'Neeye Oli' song that featured in Sarpatta Parambarai, sung by Shan and Navz-47, he says, “You was trying hard to keep me out that film.” In the film, a small portion of 'Neeye Oli' comes as a sync song while the full version appears during the end credit. Arivu wrote the Tamil lyrics for the song while Shan wrote the English verses.
While several people acknowledged Shan's musical talent and said that it was unfortunate that a section of social media users had abused him, many also said that Shan was wrong to direct his rage at Pa Ranjith as the latter had not blamed him for the cover.
Rapper CJL wrote, “You gotta chill dude. it was never about you since the beginning.”
you gotta chill dude. it was never about you since the beginning. https://t.co/QY665tGom5
— C J L (@_iamcjl) August 26, 2021
Other social media users also expressed their displeasure at Shan's attack on Ranjith.
Wow okay wow. The message / statement he put it out today, whether right or wrong showed maturity and respect from one artist to another. But this is just embarrassing gosh.
— birYani propaganda. (@Lakshayamathav) August 26, 2021
Another person wrote, "@RollingStoneIN cover issue about @TherukuralArivu being left out has nothing to do with you @shanvdp Its like somehow this guy wanna be a victim of something and put up a fight where none is warranted!" (sic)
@RollingStoneIN cover issue about @TherukuralArivu being left out has nothing to do with you @shanvdp
— Not_a_covidiot (@BigbossBiggboss) August 27, 2021
Its like somehow this guy wanna be a victim of something and put up a fight where none is warranted! pic.twitter.com/jmquGcOV2K
On Facebook, where Shan posted the same video, a user who identified himself as a fan of Ranjith's and Shan's wrote:“I read the open letter that you released yesterday. Appreciate the fact that you gave credit where credit was due and recognised Arivu's talents. Being a huge fan of you, Arivu and Ranjith, it breaks my heart to see this issue boiling over like this. What Ranjit has tweeted may come off as a snide remark but I hope you understand the fact that Dalits have been denied a platform for centuries and they often had to break barriers and work extra harder than everyone else in order to be heard and seen.
Arivu has been in the scene for quite awhile now and despite his mass appeal and advocacy, he has not been given much exposure by the mainstream media. This is extremely frustrating and invokes age old traumas of being sidelined and marginalised for those in the Dalit community. In all honesty.. I feel Arivu, you and Dhee should have been featured in the cover of Rolling Stones together. I understand you had your album coming up and Dhee as well. But Arivu is leading a revolution in the industry. If that's not news worthy, I'm not sure what is.”
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the severe backlash, Rolling Stone India released a digital cover featuring Arivu for August 2021. Describing Arivu as a wordsmith, composer and rapper, Rolling Stone said that “the Tamil artist has scorched a path out, raising his voice against systemic injustices.”
#BeyondBorders: Wordsmith, composer and rapper @TherukuralArivu appears on our August 2021 digital cover. Following acclaim for his album ‘Therukural’ with @ofrooooo, the Tamil artist has scorched a path out, raising his voice against systemic injustices
— Rolling Stone India (@RollingStoneIN) August 27, 2021
Photo: @beraviphoto pic.twitter.com/7lPd5bSfZW
Shan's track comes after days of speculation and discussions on social media about why Arivu was excluded from the cover of Rolling Stone India. Pa Ranjith set the ball rolling by calling out Canada-based music platform maajja, an independent record label which has signed Arivu, Dhee, Shan and others, as well as Rolling Stone for not acknowledging the contributions of Arivu. Arivu, who belongs to a Dalit community, is the lyricist of ‘Enjoy Enjaami’ and ‘Neeye Oli’ (Tamil lyrics). Accusing the magazine of “invisibilizing” Arivu, Ranjith tagged Rolling Stone India and maajja, and tweeted, “Is it so difficult to understand that the lyrics of both songs challenges this erasure of public acknowledgement?”
Two days ago, Shan had shared the hate messages, including racist ones, that he had received on his Instagram account. He blamed Ranjith for it and later deleted the post on Instagram. He also released a statement regarding the controversy. Addressing Arivu, he had said, “To Arivu, I will forever support you and stand behind your quest for representation, not just in this moment, but continuously. You are an inspiration to so many, and it shows. We are both defying odds and calling for representation for our communities, and industry politics and the media can’t stop us from uniting to support each other.”
“It is without question how important your contribution is to the culture and the songs you help write. I would never attempt to discredit or take away from your hard work. I know how difficult it is to come up in this industry. I would love to continue a discussion about this entire situation; I look forward to connecting and continuing to support your rise.”
In the latter part of the letter accusing Ranjith of dividing the Tamil community, he said, “My biggest issue is Ranjith’s tweet and the vitriolic responses it has generated. In his righteous demand for representation for his community, he irresponsibly fueled the fire of divide amongst Tamil Artists. His tweet was recklessly broadcast to over a million followers with no reference to the actual article. There was no contest as to why I’m on the cover and Arivu is not, yet he chose this moment to create his own narrative. In his tweet, he credited Arivu as the lyricist of Neeye Oli, leaving me and my contributions unmentioned.”