Toronto-based Tamil rapper Shan Vincent de Paul has dropped fierce and unfiltered new single “Savage”. The track serves as the single for his upcoming third studio album – and his most compelling project to date – Made in Jaffna. The music video features French-Tamil dancer Usha Jey, the force behind the popular hybrid Bharatanatyam series on Instagram.
“‘Savage’ was a purely cathartic creation for me where the expression took precedence over ‘accessibility’,” said Shan Vincent de Paul, about the process behind the track. “I wanted to write an ‘anti-hit’, something that didn’t pander to any kind of audience, sound or trend. It was a gateway to tap into a darker side without having to keep up the facade of a glossy, perfect world that we often see on social media. The title is also a tongue-in-cheek reference to the term colonizers used to describe us for eating with our hands,” he adds.
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Matching Shan’s vocal ferocity in the music video is Paris-based hip-hop dancer and Bharatanatyam enthusiast Usha Jey’s choreography, whose hybrid mix of the two dance styles made her a social media star. Shot in Berlin, the video features two avatars of Usha, performing her trademark ‘hybrid Bharatanatyam’.
Known to many for his razor-sharp songwriting, skilled rapping skills and strong visual aesthetic, Shan Vincent de Paul has been at the forefront of the global South Asian arts renaissance in Canada.
Watch the music video for “Savage” by Shan Vincent de Paul below.