Arivu interview | On the release of album ‘Valliamma Peraandi’, and life after ‘Enjoy Enjaami’

Arivu transforms into Brother Bigson Mandela in his new album Valliamma Peraandi, exploring his roots and creating joyful music.

“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.

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.