Shan Vincent de Paul Plants One Hundred Thousand Flowers in Your Mouth for a Moment of Violent Silence.
You know that moment where you come across a song and it unhinges something within you that feels both familiar and foreign? It’s like watching a gruesome injury that’s both unsettling and captivating. You can see and feel how visceral the pain is but because it’s not yours, it somehow electrifies a dark curiosity and energy within. It’s as if your body activates a flight or fight response but your mind dares you to just sit there, think, and sink into the moment.
That’s how I felt after I heard One Hundred Thousand Flowers by Shan Vincent de Paul. While some may consider that a disenchanting description for a song, I’d argue the piece is a remarkable and important work of art that courageously tackles the Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka by the throat. It’s the kind of evocative creative expression every artist yearns to master at least once in their careers.
Toronto based and Sri-Lankan born, Shan Vincent de Paul manages to concoct a rich plate of genre-bending experimental sounds, traditional instruments, and poignant storytelling, delivered on a bed of dark but colorful cadences and vocals that are nutrient-dense with wordplay and emotion.
The recently dropped single is part of up his upcoming album, Made in Jaffna; and if the title and single weren’t enough of an indication of what’s to come, Vincent de Paul had some choice words about his latest release:
“This is easily the most important song of my life… I felt like I spent my life mastering my craft just so I can write something like this,” exclaimed the Jaffna-born artist. “Our community still has so much healing to do and is still dealing with the aftermath of the war. There has been no justice or accountability for the genocide carried out against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. This song was a way for me to channel the frustration and anger of feeling ignored as a people, and hopefully raise awareness of what happened in Sri Lanka,” he continued.
Considering today’s sociopolitical climate, the timing is ripe for One Hundred Thousand Flowers to bloom. Perhaps that’s why it evoked such an emotional response from me. It serves as a flagrant reminder that not only is there an abundance of unaddressed prejudice and pain around the world where the wounds are still fresh, but also that it is our job to shed light on these struggles as mainstream media is not incentivized nor trusted to earnestly depict pigmented conflicts outside of the West.
All that said, this is ultimately a head-bangin’ bop and as such, I want to emphasize that Shan Vincent de Paul is at his musical, lyrical, and performative excellence here — that should not be overshadowed by the source material. He takes the subject of war and leaves you ready to embark on one of your own. If you put a gun to my head and forced me to make a comparison I’ll get ridiculed for, I’d say One Hundred Thousand Flowers feels like a pissed off Eminem, Slug from Atmosphere, and System of a Down, got together for a political slam poetry event, riled up the crowd, marched down to the White House — drums in hand, and then did some things that would have a red-orange Tucker Carlson stuttering obscenities on live television. So yeah, go listen to it. I promise you’ll torch a couple of calories.
