Nigerian music sensation Divine Ikubor, widely known as Rema, has finally shed light on the artistic intentions behind his rebranding in the lead-up to the release of his sophomore album, HEIS, which dropped last year.
The singer, known for his previously playful and youthful image featuring teddy bears and a signature mask, surprised fans with a darker, more mature aesthetic. His new look included tattoos, darker color palettes, a shift in sound, and visuals that showed him smoking—sparking widespread reactions and assumptions about his personal transformation.
Marking the one-year anniversary of HEIS on Thursday, Rema took to his X handle to explain that the changes were purely artistic. According to him, the rebranding was never a departure from who he is, but a symbolic expression tied to the album’s themes.
“I expressed a lot of surface level reasons why I released this project over a course of interviews when it came out but, here are few ‘SYMBOLIC’ details that wrap around the ENERGY of the project I kept for myself but now, I’d like to share,” he wrote.
He went on to reveal that the album cover drew inspiration from the character Itachi Uchiha in the popular anime series Naruto. For Rema, Itachi’s story reflected “the Truth masked as illusion, Love buried under what y’all thought was betrayal (change of sound, smoking, looks, aesthetics & choice of color).”
Rema clarified that his decision to adopt smoking and a bolder visual identity was not a lifestyle change but a part of the artistic narrative he sought to build with HEIS.
This isn’t the first time a Nigerian artist has made similar clarifications. Rapper Shallipopi previously stated that while he’s often seen posing with cigarettes, he doesn’t actually smoke and only uses them for visual effect.
Rema’s candid explanation has sparked new conversations among fans and creatives about the blurred lines between personal identity and performance art in modern music.
