Rema come a long way despite his young age, the Nigerian Rema has just released his first album which combines romantic afrobeats, hedonistic synthpop, rowdy dembow and amapiano projections. A victory that the singer moderates: he only followed the signs sent by the sky.
On its scale, it is a declaration of war. Last May, Rema released the music video for “Are You There? from his debut album Rave & Roses .
Filmed in Lagos, the video presents the young 22-year-old singer in a light that we did not know him, megaphone in hand, warrior gestures and the look of a man ready to fight. “People say I should only talk about women”, recalls in its first verse the one that many know for his love songs and his honeyed voice. But no more serenades.
Throughout the video, Rema denounces police violence and urges the crowd to rise up against the authorities, in an atmosphere punctuated by the sound of gunshots and bomb threat news flashes. The clip ends with a tough, face-to-face confrontation between Rema and a police sergeant ready to throw his baton into anything that moves.
What to see in this piece the manifesto of a singer who now wants to be the spokesperson of his generation, far from the time when he landed accompanied by a giant teddy bear for his live on the YouTube channel Colors. Because, like all people his age, Rema is in full transition, between who he is and who he wants to be. “The voice in my head tells me I'm a soldier.
Then I remember that my mom one day decided to give me the name Divine . he sings at the opening of his first album. In civilian life, Rema is called Divine. A first name given to her by her mother following a complicated pregnancy during which she never knew if the child she was carrying in her womb was alive or not. Nine months in suspense, interpreted as a celestial test, which ended in a miracle: the birth of a little boy who was soon to be said would change the world.
Broken family
Divine Ikubor was born on May 1 , 2000, in Benin City, Nigeria. Formerly known as Edo, this city was the capital of one of the most powerful kingdoms in West Africa in the 15th century . Before being destroyed by British settlers, the walls that encircled it were the most colossal human construction on the planet, four times the length of the Great Wall of China. “Benin City is a legendary and ancestral place. With a deep traditional culture. The people there are very religious, community oriented and have quite a different mindset from the rest of Nigeria ,” Rema sums up.
In the midst of this setting steeped in history, the young Divine grew up in a family of six. Of a playful nature, he is a popular little boy, always making new friends and entertaining the gallery in the schoolyard. A character trait he inherits from his father, Justice Ikubor, a respected man, director of a publishing house and important member of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), one of the main political parties in Nigeria. “ My father was a role model for me. I found him so cool. He let me watch movies with him until late at night, when I had school the next day. And he even had a nose piercing. If some people consider today that I have swag, it 'sis because I got it from him. »
"I had a very deep sadness in me and I walled myself in silence."
On May 8, 2008, Justice Ikubor's body was found in a room at the Bins Hotel in Benin City. The reasons for his death are unclear, some local media contenting themselves with evoking a fragile heart and an excess of energy drinks. For Rema, who is 8 years old, it is a world that is collapsing. He withdraws into himself, hardly speaks any more: “I had a very deep sadness in me and I walled myself in silence.
Little by little, I started having fewer friends, cutting myself off from others. To take his mind off things, he gets into the habit of sitting at the back of the class and drawing comics inspired by the Marvel superheroes he used to talk about so often with his father. A way also to forget what is happening at home. Because after the death of his father, his family is struggling to make ends meet.“
At that time, I used to go to school in the morning hungry. So I started selling my comics or exchanging some drawings for food , ” Rema recalls.
In 2015, a new drama hits the home. Rema's brother dies during a surgery that goes wrong. “I lost my brother to Nigeria's poor health system. They operated on him by candlelight. He was incised in the wrong place and bleed out,” the singer later said on Twitter. Faced with these trials, the young Divine is forced to grow up quickly: “I had to change the way I spoke, how I behaved. I understood that we were going to have to fight to get out of it. Behind the child's face, the mind of the warrior.
God's plan
To cope with these hardships, Rema quickly turned to religion. Coming from a Christian family, he already used to go to mass every Sunday. But the sudden death of his father has the effect of a mystical revelation. He is now convinced of it: he is not quite like the others. He explains: “God sends me signs, he speaks to me.
That's why I know there's something different about me. I'm on another frequency. » Few little by little, he is more and more assiduous on the pews of the Christ of Mercy Church, the church of Benin City, where he is passionate about gospel music.
Within his congregation, he created three different groups and even ended up being invited to come and sing with his friends in Lagos, on the stage of the Christ Embassy, on which his church depends. It was there that he decided to adopt the stage name Rema, which means "love" in Igbo, a language spoken in southern Nigeria.
One day, the pastor of his church takes him aside and shares a prophecy about him: "He told me that God had given me a gift and that one day the whole world would listen to my music. . From then on, some of his relatives began to call him "the Chosen One" . Having become a youth leader of his church, he created the Rap Nation program which aims to teach young people to rap for the congregation. During a religious event, Rema meets Alpha P, a teenager of his age who is also passionate about music.
Together, they form the duo RnA and even end up winning the first prize in the local telecrochet Dream Alive in 2015.thanks to their song “Mercy”, which gives thanks to God for having brought them this far. In the process, Rema and Alpha P are interviewed by Channel TV, one of the most followed antennas in the country. The two teenagers have eyes that shine. They already see each other at the top.
Vidéo "Mercy" by Rema in 2014
But Rema does not have the financial resources to invest in his musical career and build on his budding notoriety. In addition, his mother insists that he does not give up his studies.
However, some signs do not deceive. “One day, on my way to school, I heard music behind a door. I knocked to find out what was going on. A sound engineer opened up and told me it was his studio. I told him that I wanted to rap and asked him how much a recording session cost.
As he liked my voice, he agreed to do it for me for free. In all my life, I have hardly ever paid for any recording session. I call it a blessing. »But at home things are bad because there is not enough money. With his mother and two sisters, Rema has to move to Ghana. The family wants to try their luck elsewhere. Even if it means having to leave the ambitions of each other in the lurch.
Lagos then the world
In 2017, after a year abroad, Rema and her family returned to Nigeria. It's a new start. To mark the occasion, with the money he has saved with his odd jobs, Divine offers his mother a new car. And in an attempt to pick up his musical career where he left off, the young singer downloads hundreds of beats on which he starts rapping on a chain of freestyles which he then posts on his Instagram account. His performances go unnoticed and Rema despairs.
“ At that time, I was depressed. There wasn't much going on in my life and I had just spent two weeks locked up at home without going out. The outside world scared me. I posted my freestyles online but nobody reacted. »Until February 24, 2018 when everything is accelerating. That day, the rapper finally left his house and the video he shares shows him driving a car, embroidering lyrics on the instrumental of the title "Gucci Gang" by D'Prince, local music superstar and boss of Jonzing World, one of the country's hottest labels.
Watch the vidéo here .
Repost, likes, shares: the video is spinning at full speed and the view counter is racing. Rema doesn't have time to figure out what's going on as a message from D'Prince is already in his DMs. The star singer wants to meet the child prodigy and asks him to come to Lagos. The next day, Rema is on the bus in the direction of the megalopolis of 15 million inhabitants.
He won't be returning to Benin City for a while. Because, in the process, D'Prince signed him on his label Jonzing World, a sub-division of Mavin Records. Immediately, Rema is sent to the studio. And the magic happens: the boy changes any beat into a hit. So much so that the producers even end up emptying the bottom of drawers and giving him the instrumentals that nobody usually wants. Breaking out of his usual hip-hop register.
This is what will give birth to the piece that propels him into another dimension: "Dumebi". “This title was recorded very quickly, almost by mistake ,” recalls the young singer. “ That day, I didn't have much time in the studio. I just laid down a vibe and mumbled a melody so I wouldn't forget it . But I didn't have time to write text, so I took out everything that came to mind .
When I then made D ' Prince listen to the demo and told him that I had to write a text, he said to me : "Out of questions, don't touch anything!” Released in 2019 on Rema's debut EP, "Dumebi" immediately reached the top of the Nigerian charts .
From then on, everything is linked together as in a prophecy. His title "Iron Man" is found the same year on Barack Obama's playlist and Rema is called to parade at Lagos fashion week.
We see him alongside Jaden Smith, at Drake's Halloween party, in the studio with Skepta, FKA Twigs or Virgil Abloh. In parallel, he goes to Boiler Room and on the Colors YouTube channel while displaying his childish face on the cover of Dazed , The Fader and Crack magazines . Rema is not even 20 years old and he already has the world at his feet.
Stormy days
Either way, Rema's rapid and spectacular rise isn't all about blessing and individuality. It has accompanied the general explosion of Nigerian afrobeats in the charts around the world for a little over five years. A strong arrival embodied for example by the success of Wizkid who signed in 2016 alongside Drake the title “One Dance”, number 1 in 15 countries.
Or that of Burna Boy who, in the wake of his album African Giant, won the prize for best international artist at the BET Awards in 2019. From then on, a whole ecosystem was taking shape in Lagos while the record majors rushed to Nigeria as a new El Dorado.
In 2016, Sony Music opened its offices there and became the first major Western label to invest on the African continent. Two years later, it is this time Universal Music (on which Rema depends via Mavin Records) which settles, followed by Warner Music in 2019.
Long excluded from the discussions, Africa now has a voice in the chapter of global pop music and Nigeria intends to make itself heard as a major cultural power. Even if it means forgetting that on the political and social level, the country is in agony, stuck between inequalities, corruption.
"Everyone is just waiting for that spark that will trigger a great revolution. And I feel it coming. People are bubbling."
A situation that pushes the new generation, that of Rema, to the limit. “Currently, it 's getting harder and harder, to a point that's becoming unbearable. Everyone is just waiting for that spark that will trigger a great revolution. And I feel it coming. People are bubbling. I hope the government realizes this because otherwise it 's not going to be fun. The clouds are full and it must rain”, predicts Rema who sees his music and the resonance it now finds internationally as a way to move the lines, like the national legend Fela Kuti who has always known how to make his audience dance while passing a message of claim. Because the young prodigy from Benin City no longer wants to wear the costume of the nice boy singing love songs.
In September 2020, he even allowed himself to apostrophize the People's Democratic Party (PDP) for the time of a series of messages on Twitter – since deleted – where he settled old scores: “The PDP, you all have to explain yourselves on this what happened to my father in that hotel room . Justice Ikubor's son has grown up. “ Sharp, he continues in the following tweet: ” I saw the bag of money, 2008.
Life was hard when I lost my father. When I return to Benin City, I will knock on the doors of some whose names I have not forgotten, peacefully. “ Even if he knows he is being watched from above, Rema assures that he did not “fall from the sky”and he refuses to turn the other cheek. As he says, Divine has become big, very big. And despite what the sugary hits with millions of views may suggest, he now feels like a soldier armed with an angel voice. Ready to fight a honey-flavored war.