Rappers Arivu, Paal Dabba want Chennai to dance at their concert ‘Petta Rap’

Rappers Paal Dabba and Arivu
| Photo Credit: Johan Sathyadas

Arivu and Paal Dabba’s tryst began before they were formally introduced to each other. “When Paal Dabba’s ‘Ai ai ai’ came out, a mutual friend otold me that Paal had danced in the video of one of my songs — ‘Namma Stories’. That is when I began following him on social media. I had even sent him a message congratulating him,” Arivu says.

Paal, on the other hand, was an avid listener since Arivu’s first major album Therukural. “I heard ‘Kalla Mouni’ and ‘Sanda seivom’ and was wondering who this guy churning banger after banger was,” he says.

These years of mutual admiration have culminated in both trailblazers of Tamil rap coming together to perform at Petta Rap.

Arivu says that this is a crucial time for rap in the mother tongue. “We are all just about figuring out how to experiment, rap and bring diverse voices in our mother tongue. While I bring the flavour from Arakkonam, brother Paal does it from his area,” he says.

Paal Dabba thinks that this rootedness finds its way in both their work and is crucial to their identities as artistes. A lesson that he learnt at a dance workshop in Chennai by a famous international artiste, is something he repeatedly goes back to. “People were breaking down his style of dancing and discussing that international form at length. The artiste however asked everyone to focus on learning and finding ways to adapt a local flavour to the form. It isn’t right to speak as though the local artform isn’t valid,” he says.

Language, he says, is instrumental in revealing an individual and a community’s roots. “That is why I am a representative of Tamil. I want to take these stories and ensure it connects to my people and the world,” he says.

Taking off from here, Arivu says that language, a medium created hundreds of years ago, has found ways to speak through his tongue after traversing generations. “My role today is to keep it alive until my last breath,” he says.

Rappers Paal Dabba and Arivu
| Photo Credit:
Johan Sathyadas

Success gripped both these rappers when they were young. They have travelled to various stages across the world and are looking forward to these experiences outside of themselves. What do their mothers have to say about their success? “My mother is a fantastic singer but has only always sung only at home. Although she is happy about my success, I feel pained by the knowledge that others like her have not succeeded in becoming singers. I want to collaborate with her and bring her to a recording studio,” Arivu says. He adds that his mother chides him on certain occasions, asking him to stop expressing a view. “It is likely that I might have enjoyed saying the line at the interview over having sung a song,” Arivu says.

Paal Dabba says that with success comes a healthy dose of fear. “I am the first in my family to enter this industry. It is certainly new for everyone and sometimes scary for my mother but I have sat her down and had a chat. I have told her ‘This is how it is going to be’.”

Soon, Paal will release his single ‘X’, a digression from his usual upbeat rap full of whimsy. “This is an experiment. A slow rap about my love life and its implications with a little bit of fiction. I took it upon myself as a challenge to experiment,” he says, making an ‘X’ with his hand, saying he would much rather not have this character back in his life.

Arivu says that he is fearful of writing love songs and has contemplated ‘love’ for years because the harsh reality is that it is deeply political. Someday though, he hopes to experiment.

Both rappers have much to say but would rather conserve their energy to perform at the concert. “It is going to be fun. We want everyone to go back with a grin of satisfaction, drenched in sweat and all danced out,” they say.

Petta Rap by Arivu x Paal Dabba is at Island Grounds on December 15. It begins at 6.30pm. Tickets are priced at ₹499 and ₹999 on insider.in, bookmyshow, skillbox and actcevents.com. The Hindu Made of Chennai is the celebration partner.