Tamil film director Pa Ranjith on Sunday, August 22 strongly condemned Rolling Stone India magazine’s recent cover and AR Rahman backed music platform Maajja for failing to credit lyricist, rapper and singer Arivu in its latest cover story. Arivu had penned lyrics for the songs Enjoy Enjaami and Neeye oli, which were part of the story by Rolling Stone India. For singing Enjoy Enjaami and Neeye oli, Rolling Stone India interviewed singers Dhee and Shan Vincent de Paul and featured them on its August cover. However, Arivu who is the lyricist of Enjoy Enjaami and co-lyricist of Neeye oli with Shan, and known for his strong anti-caste lyrics, was not featured on the cover.
While the cover story only has one small quote from Arivu, the cover photo only features Dhee and Shan Vincent de Paul. Taking to Twitter, Ranjith said, “Arivu, the lyricist of Neeyaoli and Singer as well as lyricist of Enjoy Enjaami has once again been invisiblised. Rolling Stone India and Maajja, is it difficult to understand that the lyrics of both the songs challenges this erasure of public acknowledgement?”
@TherukuralArivu, the lyricist of #Neeyaoli and singer as well as lyricist of #enjoyenjami has once again been invisiblised. @RollingStoneIN and @joinmaajja is it so difficult to understand that the lyrics of both songs challenges this erasure of public acknowledgement? https://t.co/jqLjfS9nwY
— pa.ranjith (@beemji) August 22, 2021
Several others also lashed out at the magazine and the music label for excluding Arivu from his own work. Director CS Amudhan tweeted, “If the Arivu erasure wasn’t a deliberate and blatant move, singer Dhee, music composers Santhosh Narayanan and AR Rahman should speak up, otherwise it will go down as a historical injustice. These are people we believe are on the right side of the good fight, I really hope they do the right thing.”
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— Shalin Maria Lawrence (@TheBluePen25) August 22, 2021
When #enjoyenjaami was released I first thought it was Arivu's independent single and it had Dhee supporting him as he was an independent artist. He wrote the lyrics ,sang .The song was his idea.Nobody can deny it. But the title said "Dhee ft Arivu".
Arivu is the singer & writer of Enjoy Enjaami, yet he has been erased everywhere. The song is about the life of Arivu's Dalit ancestors, yet Dhee has stolen all the credit. From Spotify to Rolling Stone, everyone has completely sidelined Arivu. This is how UCs steal Dalits' work pic.twitter.com/hxGZ2arCk1
— Sankul Sonawane (@Sankul333) August 23, 2021
- @RollingStoneIN Arivu should have been a part of this cover more than anybody else. the song enjoy enjaami is about his anti-caste struggles. Rolling Stone covers issues of racial diversity extensively in the USA, but invisibilizes marginalised voices in India. fix it! pic.twitter.com/ApA4kDHCvk
— Agatha Srishtie (@SrishtyRanjan) August 23, 2021
If the @TherukuralArivu erasure wasn’t a deliberate & blatant move, Dhee, @Music_Santhosh & @arrahman should speak up, otherwise it will go down as a historical injustice.These are people we believe are on the right side of the good fight,I really hope they do the right thing.
— CS Amudhan (@csamudhan) August 22, 2021
After backlash from many including Ranjith, Rolling Stone India put out a tweet, listing the names of artists who are part of their cover story and named Arivu, besides music composer AR Rahman, Canadian hip-hop artist Navz-47 and music producer Santhosh Narayanan.
"Erasing border lines" or erasing names itself? Awful. Pls give @TherukuralArivu his rightful due. Grow up, be better. Recognise cultural appropriation. https://t.co/ZRm4Hp0PKy
— Subha Jayanagaraja (@subhajrao) August 22, 2021
Erasing what now? Idk how many times ppl will have to point this out. Shouldn't Arivu be on the cover too? Enjoy Enjami is his song, his politics, his history. https://t.co/ZZSyG90R8T
— Bharathy Singaravel|பாரதி| بارتي (@KuthaliPu) August 21, 2021
Where’s Arivu da? Should’ve been on the cover as well. https://t.co/Rh6Ln3FX9s
— Haricharan Pudipeddi (@pudiharicharan) August 21, 2021
It should have been Arivu instead of Dhee. Or atleast him too. This is why the UCs appropriating the struggles and triumphs of DBA community should be called out. What is this blanket South Asian card that these people are playing by invalidating the actual person behind it? https://t.co/c494sB3cX7
— 球子 Hara (@Mystic_riverrr) August 21, 2021
How arivu disappeared from these places? The song's soul belongs to arivu and the people grabbed his grandpa's land also robbed the song from him. There is no shame left. பரம்பரபுத்தி! https://t.co/wp5cwKBWr9
— Sridhar (@i_maayan) August 21, 2021
(1) @arrahman-backed label and platform @joinmaajja stands apart for its refreshing South Asian-focused approach.
— Rolling Stone India (@RollingStoneIN) August 22, 2021
(2) Firebrand Tamil rapper, lyricist and composer @TherukuralArivu who packed a punch in tracks like "Enjoy Enjaami" and "Neeye Oli" pic.twitter.com/1Aqd3JObJi
This is not the first time Arivu has seemingly been deprived of credit for his work. Though he wrote the lyrics of Enjoy Enjaami and appeared in the song alongside Dhee, he was dropped in the remix version of the song by French producer DJ Snake that only included singer Dhee in it. A Times Square Billboard had only featured DJ Snake and singer Dhee, excluding Arivu, who wrote the song on his grandmother Valliammal, who also featured in the original song that recorded over 300 million views.