Nigerian singer, Divine Ikubor, aka Rema, has explained his decision to switch his sound for his recently-released sophomore, ‘HeIs.’
Speaking in a recent interview with Apple Music, the ‘Calm Down’ singer explained that he decided to “switch it up” because afrobeats was getting boring.
NewsNow reports that there has been a heavy infiltration of South African genre, amapiano into the Nigerian music industry in recent years.
Rema said Nigerian artists could not afford “Watering” afrobeats down until they start losing grip of it.
“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,” he said.
“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 artists to reclaim their ownership of afrobeats.
“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.