Rema has no point to prove, his growth is crystal clear. However, the twenty-four-year-old star feels slighted by the game. There is a consensual adulation he feels entitled to but isn’t receiving and it doesn’t sit well with the self-acclaimed Prince of Afrobeats whose grievances are accentuated in his second studio album, ‘HEIS’, a witty coining that serves as a double, perhaps triple entendre. Thematically, HEIS is straightforward. Rema wants you to dance through his braggadocio. No bullshitting. Its high octane, dark, spooky, and aptly depicting his present mind frame- “HIM, I AM THAT NIGGA !”
Perhaps coincidental or on purpose, Rema’s album arrives at a time when Afrobeats wanes in speed, leaving an overdependence on South Africa’s Amapiano as original Nigerian club bangers have become decadent. While it has been cool to borrow, or infuse log drums and other inherent Amapiano elements into Afrobeats, its abuse has been vehement. The adaptation of Amapiano became the canon most operated by, but it became boring and see-through.
There were outcries for an urgent rescue but the rescue tarried hitherto ‘HEIS’. Rema’s second full-length body of work provides an apparent sonic revival. Of course, as it is with daredevils, resistance is inevitable. Rema is a daredevil in this context for obvious reasons.
Having scored a meteoric hit with ‘Calm Down’, the first ever Afrobeats song to score over a billion streams on Spotify ( according to Spotify Data, Rema’s ‘Calm Down’ alongside other tracks of his have been added to over 28.1M playlists in the last 12 months and his tracks have been saved to users library 24.3 million times in the last 12 months), the pragmatic approach would be to recycle what works right? But not Rema.
His daredevil instincts see him steal like an artist, celebrating Afrobeats through a collage of borrowed Nigerian pop music stylings- ranging from the Zule Zoo’s of this world, Lil Kesh’s ‘Shoki’ (2014), Terry G’s ‘Free Madness’ ( 2011), Wizkid’s ‘Superstar'(2011), Don Jazzy’s earlier productions, Asake’s call and response, and Naira Marley’s mumble talk. He even ‘steals’ from Eastern Africa, and Ivory Coast ( brief elements of coupe decale found in ‘Azaman’), making leeway for extensive cultural representations.
The eleven-track sophomore is an experimental bombshell that explodes from the record opener, ‘March Am’. There is no fuckery, no interlude. It’s full-throttle madness. The synths are dark, gothic, spooky ( whatever adjectives fit the bill), and foretelling of the progenitor’s mood. The Bpms is pacy, you can’t resist a footloose. It is dance music. African dance music.
In all fairness, he already hinted at this transaction via his 2023 five-track extended play, ‘ Ravage’. If anything, the EP was the Beta mode of his experimental phase, while ‘HEIS’ was the Alpha. Since the Beta was a success why shouldn’t its Alpha take the same inclinations?
Rema has been steering towards this direction, he just took a subtle approach, testing the waters before affirmation of safety ( not that he needs affirmation anyway). His lyrics are true to home base. He sings mainly in pidgin English and Yoruba. Even the features are intentional. Rema features only two artists. Odumodublvck and Shallipopi, are two artists whose sonics bear synonymity to the album’s. And they are probably the last two new superstars Afrobeats has produced in a while… but that’s another tale for another title.
‘HEIS’ has been labeled a bold offering by many, and frankly, it is and isn’t. The latter is because what does Rema have to lose if the experiment goes wrong? He has already built a loyal following and earned a shit ton of money ( a recurring expression in the album), and has etched his name in the Afrobeats wall of Greats. He was never going to lose, it’s like he made the album with the vim of youthful exuberance and a flipping middle finger to self-acclaimed genre purists.
Let’s be clear, Rema hasn’t formed anything that hasn’t been. So nobody should be quick to attach a niche label to this sound, calling it ‘Afro Rave’ or whatever. Rema only flipped the switch, damning the current canon, and bringing back the forgotten, at least a glimpse of it. If anything, that in itself is adulation-worthy.
Album Ratings: 10/10
