A year after Enjoy Enjaami first released and went on to become a viral hit, the controversy over song credits and debates such as 'artist erasure' and 'art appropriation' are still making headlines.

TL:DR Arivu, the rapper who featured in Enjoy Enjaami was never credited as the lyricist under its music video on YouTube.  Santhosh Narayanan, producer of Enjoy Enjaami, Dhee, the voice behind the song and AR Rahman who put his name behind Majja [the indie music label that debuted with Enjoy Enjaami] have since come under fire for enabling this and the former two additionally for hogging all the limelight. Recently, this controversy took a new turn with Arivu's new claim that he 'sang, wrote, composed and performed' Enjoy Enjaami without anyone's melody or tune. 

Since this claim diminishes Santhosh Narayanan and Dhee's contributions to Enjoy Enjaami, the duo came up with lengthy statements of their own and presented their side to the story, breaking their year-long silence on the 'artist erasure' allegations. A short gist of what each of them had to say, and why it seems like Majja's marketing blunders is what has lead to this dispute still lingering. 

1. Arivu

• Enjoy Enjaami is about the history of Valliammal (his grandmother) and the landless Tea plantation slave ancestors of mine . Like every song of mine, this too carries the scarmark of my generational oppression. [Previously, in an interview called Fever Jam with Abi, Arivu himself mentions one of Dhee's points and says that Enjoy Enjaami is about the 'agriculture-based, environmental' ancestors who worshipped the panjaboothangal. He also alludes director Manikandan for seeding the idea in him.]

Santhosh Narayanan

• Dhee came up with an idea of creating a Tamil song which glorified our roots and celebrated nature. The very basis of Enjoy Enjaami is inspired from director Manikandan's amazing movie Kadaisi Vivasayi. Our team thanks him for inspiring Arivu with so many real life stories and cultural history.

Dhee

• The song's core is about an ancient Tamil society that lived one with nature and worshipped the panjaboothangal (the five elements) and lived free of adversities that came with manmade divisions (caste, religion, etc).
• Kadaisi Vivasayi is the driving force behind Enjoy Enjaami. Valliammal Paati's presence in the video was an homage to signify that we are a generation of maternal ancestory. 
• Most of the current meanings and narrative behind our song, I came to only learn after each one of Arivu's interviews dropped post-release.   

2. Arivu

• I “Composed” ,”Written” ,”sung”& “Performed” Enjoy Enjaami. Nobody gave me a Tune, Melody or a Single word to write this one. Spent almost 6 months of sleepless and stressful nights and days for everything it is right now. (sic) [In an interview with Behindwoods, Arivu has also said that Santhosh Narayanan spent a lot of time to craft the tune of Enjoy Enjaami, that Arivu was vibing with the tune for nearly a week before writing lyrics and that Santhosh Narayanan guided him a lot in writing the song alongside director Manikandan].  

Santhosh Narayanan

• I composed, arranged, programmed, recorded and co-sang Enjoy Enjaami. The above said work of mine is often referred to as "Producer" globally as many already know in the independent space. Dhee co-composed the tunes of many of her lines while Arivu agreed to write the lyrics. I composed the rest of the tune and also composed the tune of Arivu's portions.

• I usually have a reference word or phrase while composing a song and 'Enjoy Enjaami' was one of them. [Meaning Santhosh Narayanan came up with the title phrase]. 

• Our team thanks director Manikandan (Kaaka muttai, Kadaisi Vivasayi) for meticulously choosing the foundation of the lyrics for this song and for spending so many hours with Arivu to create a flow and script for the song lyrics and inspire him with so many real life stories and cultural history.
  

Dhee

• Enjoy Enjaami's lyrical structure and the premise was heavily discussed and curated within the team and we were all on the same page till the song was released. 

3. About Rolling Stone Magazine Cover debacle

• Dhee: "The Rolling Stone India cover from last year was based around Shan and I's upcoming individual albums [under Majja] and the main reason as to why we were in this particular cover together. It was neither about Enjoy Enjaami or Neeye Oli. The song names weren't mentioned on the cover too that we shared." 

• Dhee: "What I was told that there was a rollout plan where Rollingstone was going to publish cover stories on Arivu, Santhosh Narayanan and all majja artistes. This was also announced as a tweet by RollingStone before our cover was published."

The Twitter furore over the exclusion of Arivu seemingly broke with no context. 

.@talktodhee and @shanvdp appear on our August 2021 cover. The triumphant South Asian artists have been at the front of erasing border lines with songs like "Enjoy Enjaami" and "Neeye Oli" respectively, released via platform and label @joinmaajja

Cover story by @anuragtagat pic.twitter.com/OJgstNLWRA

— Rolling Stone India (@RollingStoneIN) August 20, 2021

4. About Chess Olympiad Performance sans Arivu 

One look at Arivu's Instagram page, where the second innings of this controversy began clarifies that the rapper is currently touring in the US. His presence at the opening ceremony of an International event, for which Chennai played venue was indeed inevitable if not for anything else.

• Santhosh Narayanan: With regards to Dhee and Kidakkuzhi Mariyammal's Enjoy Enjaami performance at the Chess Olympiad 2022, Arivu's physical presence was sorely missed as he was out of the country and informed the event organisers that he would not be able to attend due to his ongoing US schedule. His recording was retained in the performance.

• Dhee: About the Olympiad Chess performance, the event organizers approached Arivu and me to perform for the event and as he was not available and in the US, we played his voicetrack for the performance. He was spoken about at the event for his words and his performance of Enjoy Enjaami. 

5. About Arivu not being credited as lyricist / DJ Snake remix sans Arivu 

• Dhee: Arivu is credited in the Enjoy Enjaami DJ Snake remix on official platforms like Spotify. Santhosh Narayanan, Arivu and I have no control over the marketing behind it.

• Dhee: I have full control over what I say, do, and the things I share on social media and I have always made sure I give credits to Arivu as the writer/singer and Santhosh Narayanan as the producer/composer at every point. I don't have any control over the way our work is being shared and promoted by external sources. 

It is worth mentioning here that Dhee and Santhosh Narayanan have not just been facing allegations of 'artist erasure' for over a year, they have also come under fire for 'appropriating art' exclusive to Arivu's ancestory. It is also worth mentioning here that despite this public back-and-forth Arivu has since been pictured with Dhee at a party, and continues to work with Santhosh Narayanan.