Popular singer Divine Ikubor, also known as Rema, has emphasized the importance of Nigerian artists preserving the afrobeats culture to ensure the country’s dominance in the African music scene.
In an interview with Apple Music, Rema acknowledged the growing influence of the South African genre amapiano in the Nigerian music industry. While he praised amapiano as a great genre, he stressed that Nigerian artists must continue to uphold the influence of afrobeats on the continent.
Rema noted that his recently released sophomore album, “HeIs,” was heavily inspired by afrobeats legends such as Don Jazzy and the Mo’hits crew, 2Baba, Olamide, P-Square, and Timaya.
“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 was so insane that nothing could compete with 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.”
