“Stop ditching afrobeats for amapiano” – Rema tells colleagues

• Rema admitted that amapiano is a great genre but highlighted that Nigerian artists must sustain afrobeats’ influence on the continent.
• He spoke on how his recently-released sophomore album, ‘HeIs,’ was heavily inspired by afrobeats legends like Don Jazzy and the Mo’hits crew, 2Baba, Olamide, P-Square and Timaya.

Nigerian singer Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema has highlighted the need for his colleagues to maintain and celebrate the country’s afrobeats culture.

With the increasing influence of amapiano in the Nigerian music industry, Rema stressed the importance of sustaining afrobeats’ impact on the African music scene.

In a recent interview with Apple Music, Rema acknowledged amapiano as a great genre but emphasized the significance of preserving afrobeats’ unique sound and influence.

Rema stated that he drew inspiration from legendary afrobeats artists like Don Jazzy, Mo’hits crew, 2Baba, Olamide, P-Square, and Timaya for his sophomore album, ‘HeIs’. 

He praised the distinctive production style of afrobeats, which he believes has the power to dominate African clubs,  encouraging his fellow artists to continue producing high-quality afrobeats music to maintain Nigeria’s dominance in the industry.

In his words:

“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.

“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.”