Canadian Tamil rapper on mission to popularise Carnatic hip-hop

Got a heart full of hope and a mouth full of gold; And a plot to hold the whole wide globe… all from the pain that I turned into quotes,” raps Shan Vincent de Paul in an episode of Mrithangam Raps, a collaboration with musician Yanchan Rajmohan, that won them global fame. This hip-hop, however, isn’t accompanied by beatboxing, but comes with the awakening sounds of mridangam and even kanjira. Shan, who was born in Sri Lanka’s Jaffna, has made Toronto his home after his family had fled the country in 1986 during the civil war. His music bears witness to his Tamil roots with the fusion of Carnatic and rap.

Ahead of his performance in the city as part of India tour, the award-winning rapper speaks to DT Next about why he’s on a mission to disrupt music. “Yanchan, who plays mridangam with me, grew up in the Carnatic music world. We collaborated for a song last year and thought we could try mixing rap and Carnatic — the song went viral immediately. That was how we started working on Carnatic hip-hop through our Mrithangam Raps episodes,” he recollects, adding, “I’m aware that there will always be Carnatic purists who will tell us that what we’re doing is not music. I believe that every art form or subculture must be disrupted and challenged in order for it to thrive. Else, I think it just dies out.”

Shan, who is currently filming in India for his upcoming music album, says the songs and their visuals will capture the journey of Tamil people, while incorporating their history. “I wanted to capture the history, my roots, and the textures of the country in the songs. So, it is exciting to be filming in India,” he says.

Find any of Shan’s videos on YouTube and one is certain to spot a comment from someone from Tamil Nadu asking him to make more music in Tamil. “Chennai is definitely our biggest audience and I’m looking forward to performing in Chennai the most. The roots of mridangam are in Tamil Nadu, so it’ll be an interesting performance for us to present our music to the city. Yanchan and I have planned a couple of special things for Chennai,” reveals the musician, who has toured Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru so far. Words like thambi, thambi, sollu sollu are common in Shan’s rap. “I speak Jaffna Tamil at home, which is different from Tamil. Even though I’m not very comfortable with writing in Tamil, my long-term goal is to step up writing in Tamil,” he asserts.

Right when he was 15, Shan recollects being fascinated by rap. “I discovered I had a knack for words and was blown away when I first heard (hip-hop artists) OutKast and Jay Z. I went to university to pursue English and anthropology, but I always kept pursuing music professionally. Navigating the expectations from parents and society about my career was challenging, as it is for many South Asian youngsters,” the musician admits.

Rap is inherently political, he says. “The beauty of rap is that it is so powerful that it is so commonly used by many people around the world. I feel very inspired when I see artists use rap as a form of protest in India and around the world,” Shan adds. “My goal is to introduce Carnatic music to those who listen to hip-hop, and to familiarise rap among Carnatic followers,” he remarks.