Santhosh Narayanan and Arivu clash on social media over ‘Enjoy Enjaami’ credits and royalties

A tweet accusing music composer Santhosh Narayanan and his daughter Dhee of ‘stealing’ the Enjoy Enjaami song from rapper Arivu and Santhosh’s hitting back at the post has reignited the five-year-old credit controversy. The dispute started post the massive success of their collaboration with Dhee.

Their association turned into a bitter fallout over who truly deserves the creative credit for the global hit. The credit war today reached a new level with Arivu officially entering the debate.

Arivu responded by reiterating that while music is collaborative, "credit and compensation must be fair," and pointed out that his collaborators now hold rights while he remains uncompensated. Arivu broke his silence with a thread on X, emphasizing that the song is his lived history. He said, “For clarity regarding “Enjoy Enjaami” (released 5 years ago): The beat was sent to me. I wrote the lyrics, composed the main vocal melody, and performed the song based on my own cultural history and lived experience. Music is collaborative. But credit and compensation must also”.

“be fair. The song was shot in my village, with stories from my land and my people. I shared that history believing it would reach the masses. But I was placed only as a “featuring "artist"—despite writing the full song and composing the main melody,” he continued…

“Back then I did not understand what that meant. Five years later, the collaborators hold the rights and receive royalties, while I received no payment and no ownership for my work. This is not about sympathy. It is about credit, rights, and dignity of labour. Independent artists: protect your work. Have agreements. Know your rights,” Arivu concluded.

The controversy took a personal turn as Santhosh Narayanan engaged in a tense, viral spat on X, with Arivu leaving no doubt that the rift between the former collaborators is deeper than ever.

In his response, Santhosh hit back at Arivu’s thread, calling his claims "dishonest and delusional." he further challenged Arivu to a live debate "in any medium/channel of your choice," claiming he has digital proof to debunk Arivu’s ownership claims.

Santhosh said,“You can have your own opinions man. Pretty much every single one of your technical/ownership/legal claims are dishonest and delusional as always. Are you open to debate this in any medium/channel of your choice with all the proofs of your claims ?? As your esteemed self has blocked me everywhere else, you can reply here and I shall be available anytime .”

In his claim, Santhosh revealed that Arivu had blocked him on multiple platforms and even "made a song about it" after their initial fallout. He also claimed Arivu had ignored private attempts to resolve the issue last year, essentially accusing the rapper of using social media to fabricate a "deceitful" narrative.

Santhosh said, “Yes this should never been a social media talking point until you made it one with brazen lies. Again a beautiful fabrication of deceit when you say you tried to resolve this. You never responded once during all those trying times when I had to stay silent. Also you came home once last year to invite me for your marriage (I was abroad and my staff told me later). This was after you had blocked me and made a song about it. Anba dhan pesuven I promise let’s debate this, man." (sic)

For the unversed

Enjoy Enjaami, released by Maajja in 2022, honours ancestors and showcases Arivu’s personal tribute to his grandmother Valliyamma, whose family worked on Sri Lanka’s tea plantations. The track went viral, amassing over 542 million views on YouTube, and continues to be a leading indie Tamil song.