Many who have come across my Soundcloud or YouTube have come for the Tamil mixtapes that I have led and been a part of. Figured it would be fun to jot down some notes about each and tell some lore about them. Each of them always feature music from India, Eelam, and Malaysian Tamils and their respective diasporas and the Tamil songs and Tamil remixes are layered over a wide variety of global sounds.
To listen to the mixtapes, check out this playlist on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/margibmusic/sets/tamil-mixtapes
Athirvukal (Vibes)
Summer 2019 – The American desi dance scene (Bollywood fusion, but also Bhangra and Classical) has a culture of promotional mixtapes for dance competitions. However, outside of Hansini 2017 (led by Dr. Srimix) and Laasya 2019 (led by me), there weren’t any good mixtapes where the majority of the music was South Indian. I was very inspired by the smoothness of DJ MG’s BollyAUS 2019 mixtape and decided to create a 20 minute tape that featured Indian, Eelam, and Malaysian Tamil music layered over a variety of American and global dance genres, and hence “Athirvukal” (Vibrations) was born.
To listen, check out Soundcloud, YouTube, or Audiomack
Alaigal (Waves)
Fall 2020 – During the pandemic, I knew I wanted to create another Tamil mixtape, and I had to loop in Tamil legends Dr. Srimix, G-tam, and VGo. This one was called “Alaigal” (Waves). viYOLIN and I go back to childhood Bengali singing class and he developed a gigantic listenership on Spotify for his instrumental violin covers. We had talked about collaborating for a while and this provided the perfect opportunity to feature some of his amazing covers in a new light. A lot of the concepts on this tape were tested on TikTok before I strang them together. This mixtape was also where I started drawing on a global pop theme. The “Kalyana Vayasu” mix is layered over a Russian rap song, “Dappava Kizhichan” is mixed with a famous Lebanese song, and the intro mix samples Vietnamese pop.
To listen, check out Soundcloud, YouTube, or Audius.
Oligal (Sounds)
Spring 2022 – Coming out of the pandemic, it had been a year and a half, and I had made a lot of Tamil concepts that needed airtime, so time for another mixtape. One thing we have in America is a lot of talented desi DJs who are language agnostic; they are as comfortable making Punjabi mixes, as they are with Hindi, Telugu, and other Indian languages. In America we bring Tamil music and culture to non-Tamils, with Dr. Srimix being a pioneer in that sense. In that spirit, I looped in three non-Tamils to join myself and Dr. Srimix: DJ MG, Swizzee, and DJ Vishnu. This mixtape continues with global sensibilities – “Venpanju” features Turkish rap, “Rasa Magarasa”, “Ma Cherie”, and “Idhazhin Oram” feature Afrobeats, “Candy” features Reggaeton, and “Thaen Thaen” features Albanian pop and UK R&B.
To listen, check out Soundcloud, YouTube, or Audius.
Malaigal (Mountains)
Spring 2024 – It had been two years since the last one, and since Oligal I had entered the ring as an actual live Tamil DJ. I had quite a few Tamil meetups under my belt at this point and was adept with playing popular kuthu songs, singalongs, and throwbacks, but my own personal taste in Tamil music has always gravitated more towards independent projects and Tamil rap. About a third of the songs on this mixtape are from independent projects and artists. This mixtape uses instrumentals from a lot of Indian languages including Hindi, Punjabi, and Telugu, and also uses some Tamil versions of popular Hindi songs. The global element is also very prominent, with “Innum Enna Thozha” utilizing amapiano, “Kadhal Kadidham” and “Thaka Thayya” featuring afrobeats, and “Chaaral” featuring deep house.
To listen, check out Soundcloud, YouTube, Audius, or Audiomack
Kings of Gaana 2025
Winter 2025 – Dr. Srimix hit G-tam and I up in late 2025 mentioning that he was in talks with Kings of Gaana (KOG), a UK Tamil dance competition to make their promotional mixtape. Having seen competition videos from KOG before, I excited told him that I was in for the ride. The deadline for the mix sneaked up on us and Srimix messaged us the saturday of thanksgiving weekend reminding us of the deadline. I was heading to Miami for Art Basel with other travel right after and was about to not have my computer for 10 days. I spent 2 hours that Saturday cranking out 6 mixes, ultimately landing on four that I sent Srimix for the compilation. Given it was a UK competition I added some nods to UK music, and additionally added some Amapiano and Arabic flavor. Dr. Srimix hit it out of the park with his Kuthu intro and hip-hop segment and G-tam added the melodic touch and throwback to round it out.
Shoutout to the competing teams: City University Tamil Society, Warwick Gaana Dance Society, UCL Tamil Society, Queen Mary Tamil Society, Tamil Society of Cardiff, Aston Tamil Society, and Cambridge University Tamil Society. Special shoutout to the winner, St George’s/SGUL Tamil Society and to the King’s College London Tamil Society for hosting.
To listen, check out Soundcloud, YouTube, or Audius.
Collaborators
Across Alaigal, Oligal, and KOG, I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with a number of talented DJs and artists and wanted to shout them all out:
- Dr. Srimix (Alaigal, Oligal, KOG) – https://www.instagram.com/drsrimix
- G-tam (Alaigal, KOG) – https://www.instagram.com/itsgtam/
- viYOLIN (Alaigal) – https://www.instagram.com/heyitsnilox/
- VGo (Alaigal) – https://www.instagram.com/officialvgo
- DJ MG (Oligal) – https://www.instagram.com/djmgmixes
- Swizzee (Oligal) – https://www.instagram.com/swimasaladosa
- DJ Vishnu (Oligal) – https://www.instagram.com/vishnumixes
There will be more added to this list in the coming years, one of the most rewarding parts is the non-Tamil representation (viYOLIN, DJ MG, Swizzee, DJ Vishnu). It is awesome and hilarious to see non-Tamils making better Tamil remixes and Tamil mashups than most popular Tamil DJs.
