Nigerian singer Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema, has stressed the importance of Nigerian artists maintaining the Afrobeats culture to ensure the country’s continued dominance in the African music scene. This comes amidst the increasing popularity of the South African genre Amapiano within the Nigerian music industry.
In an interview with Apple Music, Rema acknowledged the appeal of Amapiano but emphasized the need for Nigerian artists to keep Afrobeats at the forefront. He highlighted that his recently-released sophomore album, HeIs, drew significant inspiration from Afrobeats legends like 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," Rema said.
He continued, "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…"
Rema praised Amapiano as a great genre but pointed out that there was a time when Afrobeats production was so dominant in African clubs that no other genre could compete. He expressed a desire to see a resurgence of that unbeatable Afrobeats sound in the music scene.
"Amapiano is great, it is fire, but there used to be a time when Afrobeats production was so insane that nothing could 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," he concluded.
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