The Toronto-based Jaffna-born rapper and producer, Shan Vincent de Paul, just wrapped up a four-city India tour, but is now under lockdown like the rest of us in the world. In response to the COVID-19 epidemic that has swept across the world, the artiste has released a visual mixtape called Purgatory: The Isolation Tapes. Made completely in isolation on his iPhone, the mixtape acts almost as a short film that accompanies a handful of the musician's new songs. Set in the modern day, the visual shows a character played by SVDP navigating through the quarantine, through moments of panic and fear to beautiful moments of appreciating the world’s solidarity.  

“When this started happening on a global scale, I stopped all of my other projects immediately.  It was important that I create something that was responsive to what we were going through. What we’re seeing is unprecedented so the art has to reflect that,” says SVDP of the inspiration behind the mixtape.  

“I also looked at it as an artistic challenge. What can we artists create when left to our own devices?  It was definitely a moment of artistic evolution for me. Most important it was my contribution to help people get through these times,” he adds.

Watch the video here: