AIYO!: SVDP & Yung Raja’s Latest MV Is A High Voltage Love Letter To South Indian Cinema

SVDP and Yung Raja’s latest music video for their collaboration ‘AIYO!’ is not the kind of thing you can watch just once and forget. The first ten seconds of the video alone take us through five different scenes, from the site of an action film-worthy explosion to a flaming motorcycle cruising down a highway, a high-speed car chase, the stage of a 45,000-capacity stadium, and a restaurant kitchen. After my first watch, I hit replay immediately, attempting to absorb every little detail; even as I write this, already six views deep, I find myself itching to click play again just in case I missed something important. 

The explosive music video dropped last month, more than two years after the song’s release on streaming platforms in September of 2022. But the ‘AIYO!’ video was well worth the wait. Directed by SVDP himself, every frame could be a standalone painting. It’s a multi-medium work of art, using fashion, VFX, animation, and every other creative tool at the team’s disposal to bring SVDP’s ambitious vision to life. Filmed in 7 different cities across the globe, the video took six months to film and even includes footage from late 2022, when SVDP and Yung Raja supported 50 Cent for his show in Navi Mumbai.

The ‘AIYO!’ video’s flashiness also holds a deeper purpose. The video is dripping with appreciation for SVDP and Yung Raja’s Tamil roots. The duo’s love for their heritage is clear, from the smallest, most fleeting details, like the flashes of Tamil Pulp Fiction-esque comic book animations, to the video’s overarching homage to South Indian cinema. Both artists are part of the diaspora, as SVDP was born in Sri Lanka but fled to Canada as a young child, and Yung Raja was born and raised in Singapore. ‘Aiyo!’ takes from their multifaceted backgrounds, beautifully melding together Western hip-hop and Tamil cultural elements. 

The song itself is braggadocious in a fun way, playfully elevating the trope of flexing in rap songs by embedding Tamil cultural references into the lyrics. Of course, the word 'Aiyo' itself is heard through basically every household in South India, often with the same whining tone repeated through the song. The song’s chorus and other referential lyrics peppered throughout Yung Raja’s Tanglish verse subvert hip hop expectations by adopting a cultural lens unique to SVDP and Yung Raja, giving them an edge. SVDP and Yung Raja’s music and visual artistry isn’t a cheap imitation of Western hip-hop; it’s a reimagination of what the genre can be when we tap into what makes our backgrounds so special. 

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