Shaurya Singh Thapa caught up with the Sri-Lankan Canadian hip-hop artist to talk about his music, its process and his upcoming India tour

Rapper Shan Vincent De Paul knows how to stand out. Take the VH1 Supersonic festival in Pune recently, where he effortlessly introduced the audience to his world and had them grooving to his music–regardless of whether they knew his discography or not. 

De Paul who is of Sri-lankan descent (he was born in Jaffna) but moved to Canada later due to the civil war between factions of Tamils and Sinhalese communities on the island nation. On one hand De Paul has been vocal about being part of a “brown artist renaissance” but at the same time, he doesn’t see himself just as a hip-hop artist alone. “I would define myself as a world creator. Rap is the nucleus of what I do, but there are many other branches of creativity that I’m passionate about,” he says. This multifaceted persona of his is at display when he writes, directs and edits his own music videos. “I want to give people a full experience when they enter the SVDP world and that doesn’t only pertain to just the music. I don’t think artists should set limits on where they can take their creative potential,” he explains. 

Shan Vincent De Paul  by Alexander Lam

Growing up in Toronto, De Paul always knew that he wanted to be a creator. “Whether that was music or visual art, it’s all I ever wanted to do with my time. I was fortunate enough to know my purpose at an early age.” This sense of purpose is evident in his live shows which are marked by high bouts of energy and flawless lyrical delivery. 

The music video of one of his earliest songs Die Iconic gives us a raw, realistic glimpse into De Paul’s confident persona.The two-minute long visual is just a zoom-in shot on the rapper’s face, as he performs his song in one continuous take. All through the video, he doesn’t blink or even flinch his eyes even once. Tears drop down, his throat goes dry but he carries on. The result is a captivating display of De Paul’s ability to hold the viewer/listener’s attention.

Even though De Paul has been making music since 2007, it was his 2016 album Saviors which put him on the map. It went on to receive a nomination for Best Rap/Hip-Hop Album at the Independent Music Awards. He followed his rising popularity with a string of collaborations, his second album Trigger Happy Heartbreak (2016), his EP SVDP-1 (2017) and his most recent EP SVDP 2. There are influences of trap, pop-rap musically in his work while lyrically, he gets diverse with every record. 

His themes shift from heartbreak to his own fame to being a brown rapper to even religion. Furthermore, his songs have multiple layers to them. So, his single Bitch Go from his second album might sound like it’s a breakup anthem targeting an old flame, but the bitch in Bitch Go is actually a reference to Donald Trump. 

A new phase in De Paul’s fame on the internet came last year when he and a friend, fellow artist Yanchan Rajmohan made a classical Carnatic instrument much cooler for the world, in a series of Mrithangam Raps. In a series of now viral videos on his Facebook and Instagram, he began dropping bars to the beats of the Mrithangam played by Yanchan. This instrument is a double-sided percussion instrument traditionally played in the states of South India for many years. “In the summer of 2019, Yanchan put out a record called I Know that I was featured on. To promote the song, we thought it would be cool to do a stripped-down version of the verse with just Yanchan on the mrithangam. We’ve always talked about doing something like that, but it was a good way to test the idea.” 

Each episode of his mrithangam raps was less than a minute, but managed to draw more and more converts to his music. The comments on these videos capture all kinds of responses. Some Indian/Sri Lankans felt proud of Asian culture being represented and reinterpreted in such a fashion. But then there were others who were bothered with De Paul’s cuss-filled raps destroying the sanctity and divine nature of the instrument.

De Paul has responded to these criticisms by saying that rap is one of the most honest forms of music. “I may use “crass” language at times, because that is an expression of how I feel and who I am.” As for the ‘divinity’, he feels the mrithangam should be seen as just a fine man-made instrument. 

The success of the mrithangam raps have been so profound for De Paul and Yanchan’s careers that they now perform these in their live shows. One of the episodes even made it to the final cut of SVDP 2. “Sure enough, it went viral immediately. So we decided to really dive in it and evolve the production value for each episode. We have a bunch more episodes plotted out.” De Paul explains the future of this fusion concept, “ I’ve worked with some really talented Tamil artists from Toronto that I’m excited about. Most of my music is made with my producer La+ch – he did the majority of my album.” 

The journey so far wouldn’t have been complete with his musical peers. He has been a part of the Toronto based collective Sideways, which includes frequent collaborator and producer La+ch. When asked his friends, he says “of course, there’s Yanchan.” Yanchan and De Paul share a bond, which is not just limited to mrithangam raps. “We are releasing our collaborative album called IYAAA and just released the lead single Best Friend and will be shooting the video while we are in India.” 

It is an upbeat hip-hop ballad on friendship and the artists debuted this song at their Supersonic performance. A few days later, De Paul took a workshop and a Master Class at Mumbai. His next stop was Bangalore on Valentine’s Day, he will also be making a mark in Delhi and Chennai.  Looking forward to his travels in India, he says, “I would love to connect with some artists here in India while I’m on tour. I’m excited for just exploring the scene in general and discovering artists. There is an insane amount of talent coming out of the country and I’m excited to experience it on the ground level.” Along with the project with Yanchan, De Paul will also be releasing his third studio album Made in Jaffna this summer. 

If Shan Vincent De Paul’s story is up your alley and you want to get a ticket to the SVDP world, here are five of his songs which the artist feels make for essential listening: Die Iconic, Heaven, Radio, Mercury, Mrithangam Raps Episode 3. 

SVDP will be performing in Delhi on 21st February, Global Isai Festival in Chennai on 22nd February, and Bay 146 in Chennai on 29th February.