Popular Afrobeat singer Divine Ikubor, better known as Rema, has frequently emphasised that in order for Nigerian musicians to preserve the culture of afrobeats, the nation must remain dominant in the African music scene.
According to reports, the South African genre of amapiano has heavily permeated the Nigerian music scene in recent years.
Rema acknowledged in an interview with Apple Music that amapiano is a fantastic genre, but she insisted that Nigerian musicians are responsible for preserving afrobeats’ prominence on the continent.
He mentioned that classic afrobeats artists like Don Jazzy and the Mo’hits crew, 2Baba, Olamide, P-Square, and Timaya were major influences on his recently released sophomore album, “HeIs.”
According to him:
“I had to go back [while creating my new album]. I took a lot of inspiration from Mo’hits. For the first four seconds, when a Mo’hits’ song comes in, you already know it’s a Mo’hits’ song. Don Jazzy just goes crazy on the beat,” he said.
“The times when Olamide used to drop crazy songs, he still drops crazy songs. At the time when an Olamide song comes on you still know. P-Square, 2Face or Timaya. There used to be times when the beat just…
“Amapiano is great, it is fire but there used to be a time when Afrobeats production used to be so insane that nothing can survive it in the clubs in Africa. I’m not saying we’ve lost that but I’m just saying that we need more of that. I don’t want us to go too far away from that. We need to sustain it.”
Recall that, recently Rema was paid $3 million to perform at the wedding of Anant Ambani, son of India’s wealthiest man Mukesh Ambani, and Radhika Merchant.
Mr Ambani is an Indian businessman and the Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries. With an estimated net worth of $123.3 billion as of July 2024, he is the wealthiest person in India and the 11th most prosperous in the world.
