Rema Speaks on Watering Down Afrobeats, Says It Needs to Be Protected: “We Don Sell Ourselves”
- Nigerian singer Rema recently shared his thoughts on Afrobeats and how international factors were affecting it
- In a video making the rounds, the music star kicked against Afrobeats being watered down as he explained his new hit song, Ozeba
- The video raised a series of comments from netizens, with many of them hailing the 24-year-old singer’s wisdom
Nigerian singer Divine Okubor, aka Rema, is back in the news after sharing nuggets on the future of Afrobeats.
A video of the 24-year-old singer talking about the ways international collaborations had affected Afrobeats went viral. According to him, the music was being watered down.
Source: Instagram
Rema explained that he had to switch things up with his new album, HEIS, because things had gotten boring, and he could not continue giving fans the same sound.
He noted that Afrobeats used to be different many years ago and Nigerians need to take their sound back and protect it because watering it down was making it easier for others to recreate.
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“That’s why I had to switch that ish up! Ish was getting boring as f*ck! We can continue doing the Calm Downs, we can continue doing the Soundgasms, but we all know what Afrobeats was like in 2010, 2015, we gotta take our ish back, we gotta own it, we have to protect it. I was speaking at an interview today and I was like the source that we get this ish for international pleasure and understanding, the softer we make it and we water it down for them to be able to create it, all love to the international labels and all but we know that there are top dogs in the industry that are coming in, it’s good, they will applaud you and we are watering it down, they keep applauding until some people go dey win una Afrobeats award then you go know say we don indirectly sell ourselves.”
Why Nigerians should not water down Afrobeats
Speaking further, Rema explained that his latest song, Ozeba, was something that could not easily be recreated by other musicians or people in the diaspora. He said if Nigerians watered down their music, it would be very easy for songwriters to continue the process especially with beats being very similar to that of the music made overseas.
He said:
“So we have to own it because lowkey the complicated ish, we cannot see people out here or the people in diaspora creating things like ‘ozeba ozeba ozeba’, dem no fit nau. I don’t want to talk too much but if we water am down, e go dey very easy. Then the songwriters go enter, dem go start to help us dey cook wetin we help them water down for them to understand. The beats are getting similar too so the producers in diaspora, they can make it easy.”
See the video below:
Peeps agree with Rema's comment about Afrobeats
Read what some netizens had to say about Rema’s comments below:
Shedraq23:
“His confidence is on another level ❤️.”
mysonwill_:
“Preach my man.”
shedraq23:
“Pikin wey dun too sleep for old man mat too much, de learn x2 of waiting the old man dun see think about it .”
Shedraq23:
“I too love this boy ❤️.”
27_flamezz:
“We have to own it we have to protect it.”
shedraq23:
“Man is 100% right .”
rodwellington:
“He’s so eloquent when he speaks and knowledgeable in his field.”
peejayoffical047:
“The boy wise pass him age... Ask Odumudodublack .”
celestialravee:
“Afrobeats are in safe hands.”
pirowbanks:
“Rema spitting raw facts... Naija artist gaz buckle up or else before they steal afrobeat from us.”
djphamous_:
“Nigga said absolutely facts .. said this back in 2022 … the sound is now becoming too easy to create.”
Read also
Rema names music industry OGs in video, says he enjoyed benefits of their work: “9ice nko?”
Fave_godgift:
“The boy is young, talented and full of wisdom. Thank you Rema for saving AFROBEAT again.”
How much was Rema paid for Ambani's wedding?
Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Rema made headlines amid reports that he was to perform at Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani’s son’s wedding party.
The son of Ambani, the ninth richest man in the world, Anant, was getting set to marry his longtime girlfriend, Radhika Merchant, at what was described as the wedding of the year.
Speculations started to make the rounds of Rema being one of the celebrities to perform at the massive event. It was claimed that the Calm Down crooner was paid N4.5 billion for it.
Proofreading by Nkem Ikeke, journalist and copy editor at Legit.ng.
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