Ace Nigerian singer, Divine “Rema” Ikubor, has explained his decision to switch up the Afrobeats sound on his newly released sophomore album, ‘He Is.’
The ‘Calm Down’ crooner said the genre was becoming boring as his colleagues had watered it down, so he had to give it an upgrade and ensure the relevance is sustained.
Rema told Apple Music durig an interview that Nigerian artistes keep listening to the opinion of foreigers regarding the music genre and it is affecting their love for Afrobeats.
The musician said; “Afrobeats was getting boring so I had to switch it up. They will keep applauding and we will be watering it down until some people start winning our afrobeats awards.
“With the success that has come to Afrobeats, I feel like we are listening to the voices of the world too much, ignoring the voices back home.”
At his album listening party in London recently, Rema also called on Nigerian artistes to reclaim their ownership of afrobeats else foreign artistes will recreate it and start winning awards under the genre.
“We have to take our sh*t back, own it and protect it. The more we water it down, we make it easy for them to create it. Until some people start winning Afrobeats awards, we’ll then realize we’ve indirectly sold ourselves,” he stated.