“Bigson.. Bigsu.. Bigsappa. Where did he go?” — a mother’s voice calls out to three iterations of this name better known to the music world as Arivu. Who is Brother Bigson Mandela?
A character in his new independent album releasing on July 18? Or perhaps a mesmerising rockstar, like David Bowie’s alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, possessed by the need to make us dance?
In the first song ‘Local Jackson’ on Valliamma Peraandi’s 12-track list, Arivu as ‘Bigson’, is a nonchalant artiste. He wants people to groove to his music. He knows that he is cool, and states it. This is Arivu’s Side-B.
“Bigson is frankly just a confident Arivu,” says the hip-hop artiste, as we walk around The Hindu’s office in Chennai, two days before the launch of the album.
“I am my mother’s oldest child. I am, hence, Bigson. When I was young, I was extremely naughty. I realised at some point that being ‘Arivu’…someone who thinks… is the problem. Why not remain the childlike Bigson. Society has placed a lot of restrictions on Arivu. But as Bigson, I am free” he says.
Valliamma Peraandi album cover
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Two years after ‘Enjoy Enjaami’, now embroiled in court cases and conversation about compensation, and five years since his first runaway hit album Therukural, Arivu gears up to release Valliamma Peraandi with record label Sony Music India. Here, the 12 songs belong to different genres, themes and vibes. Think EDM at a thiruvizha, an impactful drill number on untouchability, a wordless mediation on the origin of language for the early man, four love songs with lyrics from Malayalam and Punjabi, and a diss track titled ‘Block Panniten’.
“As a child, I didn’t know rap. Most tunes I listened to were the sounds of the street — Mariamman songs and other devotional music by LR Eswari. These sounds are still within me. I tell everyone that it is important to familiarise oneself with this particular song from each region, they understand the soil and become one with the earth. I think this is what I am trying to revisit,” he says.
Tracing the line
This act of creating and recording new music has not been easy though. Arivu says that this time, he has only chosen to collaborate with people who he is familiar with, indicating that he has been burnt before. In Valliamma Peraandi, he has sung along with likes of Punjabi singer and friend Rashmeet Kaur in the track ‘Raasathi’ recorded over just two hours, and Gaana Balachander and Chellamuthu, his friends and Ambassa bandmates, in ‘Saarbaga’. His producers include Gachi B from Tanzania, London-based Quasimode, DopeBoyzMuzic, Preetesh Hirji, and long-time friend Anto Franklin.
“There is a difference between collaboration and control. In the past, I had only focussed on going into a studio and creating a song that arose from a certain part of the consciousness. I didn’t think about whether I would be given the proper rights, credits or compensation for my work. In this independent album sans many collaborators, I am finally creating songs that are my own. This is the purest form of who I am,” he says.
Arivu and his alter ego Brother Bigson Mandela
| Photo Credit:
S Shiva Raj
Arivu says that having encountered several lows post the release of ‘Enjoy Enjaami’, he has been plagued by lessons on understanding human nature. “People are not the words they speak but the actions they do. I always knew that there was inequality among humans but I gathered first-hand evidence of it after the song was released. Despite having been educated, it didn’t help me. I didn’t get the tools at a young age to handle and fight such problems,” he says.
Now, his vision is clear. He is here to speak the stories of his ancestors and is insistent on doing it with pizzazz. This is where being Valliamma’s peraandi (grandson), is helpful. Arivu says that it was in the eyes of his grandmother that he was first seen as an artiste.
“My grandmother from Salem, was taken as an indentured labourer to the tea estates of Sri Lanka, under the British. Despite having created a home there, she was forcefully asked to return to this country for no fault of her own. She lives and thrives despite being displaced. I visited the tea estates some time back and felt like I didn’t know how to process it. I came back with ‘Enjoy Enjaami’ but this new song in the album, ‘Kangaani’, is a deeper exploration of her story. It is where the labourers at the estate would make fun of their supervisors through wordplay. She brought me up as a child as my mother would go to work. I got care, love, and the chance to be a performer before her. She called me Ballvaya,” he says.
On to the next
Arivu’s exploration through this album also reiterates that he is a performer who seeks out joy. “Imagine if there was no caste. What songs would Arivu be making? I would be making jolly songs but my pen does not allow it. At the end of the day, I am a casteless man. I want to be able to make music that is fun. I want to connect with people through love. My band, Ambassa and its band members, are examples of how one can create joyous music through folk and ganaa, without ignoring what is important,” he says.
The artiste is all set to begin touring soon and has begun working on the next volume of this album, but says that he is most excited for people to hear and receive Valliamma Peraandi. “I am looking to serve people music that works to their taste and aligns with my thoughts,” he says. Mostly though, he would just like to make songs that are fun.
To facilitate that, his new avatar is raring to go. Welcome to the world, Brother Bigson Mandela.