Tamil filmmaker Pa Ranjith has called out Rolling Stone India's recent magazine cover and AR Rahman backed music platform Maajja for not crediting lyricist, rapper and singer Arivu in its latest cover story. Arivu had penned lyrics for the hugely popular songs 'Enjoy Enjaami' and 'Neeye Oli', which were part of the Rolling Stone feature. The magazine interviewed singers Dhee and Shan Vincent de Paul, while not giving enough space to Arivu, who is known for his anti-caste lyrics. The story has a small quote of Arivu, and the cover photo does not feature him at all.
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?”
Several others, too, criticised the magazine for not recognising Arivu. 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.”
Here are some more reactions:
Following the backlash, Rolling Stone India put out a tweet, listing the names of artistes who are part of their cover story and named Arivu, besides music composer AR Rahman, Canadian hip-hop artiste Navz-47 and music producer Santhosh Narayanan.
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