walking upstream…
Rema
Divine Ikubor grew up in Benin City leading a teenage gospel-rap crew before D'Prince spotted his freestyle over an Instagram clip and flew him to Lagos to sign with Jonzing World, the Mavin Records offshoot that shaped his early run. His 2019 debut single 'Dumebi' and the EP that followed announced a singer as comfortable rapping as crooning, and by 2022's Rave & Roses he'd branded that hybrid 'Afrorave' — an Afrobeats base streaked with rave synths and left-field textures he's said came more from personality and instinct than from any specific record collection. 'Calm Down' turned him into Afrobeats' most inescapable global crossover of the early 2020s, and Heis (2024) pushed the sound darker while keeping him inside the genre's self-declared 'Big Four.'
the sound in question
2022
Calm DownRema
walk the tributaries ↓
D'Banj2000s–2010s · Afropop / R&B / Dance-pop
Rema has called D'Banj foundational to his own existence, telling him onstage at London's O2 Arena, 'If it weren't for you, I wouldn't exist' — the Mo' Hits-era, hook-first, dance-floor-built Naija-pop blueprint D'Banj and Don Jazzy engineered in the 2000s is the direct ancestor of the upbeat, percussion-forward Afrobeats Rema grew up on and still makes.
listen: upstream & heresource: Naija News ↗
2005
TongoloD'Banj
2020
Ginger MeRema
listen forPlay D'Banj's breakout 'Tongolo' against Rema's 'Ginger Me' — both are playful, percussion-driven pop-Afrobeats built to move a room, a generation of production apart.
Wizkid2010s · Afrobeats / Afropop / R&B
In a Nigerian TV interview Rema said he's inspired by Wizkid for 'how he carries himself' onstage and in the industry; that same unhurried, sung-not-shouted melodic delivery — hooks floated over the beat rather than rapped through it — runs through Rema's own catalog.
listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone ↗
2014
OjuelegbaWizkid
2019
DumebiRema
listen forSet Wizkid's featherweight, fully-sung 'Ojuelegba' against Rema's breakout 'Dumebi' — both glide over a light, melodic Lagos-pop pocket, with Rema tightening the cadence into a stickier hook.
Burna Boy2020s · Afrobeats / Afro-fusion / Reggae
Rema has said he's inspired by Burna Boy specifically 'because of his story' — the self-made rise to a Grammy-winning 'African Giant' — and that same chest-out self-mythologizing surfaces whenever Rema opens a project narrating his own ascent rather than singing a love song; Rolling Stone caught him doing exactly that while explaining his 'Big Four' framing alongside Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Davido.
listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone ↗
2018
2022
DivineRema
listen forPlay Burna Boy's defiant self-affirmation anthem 'Ye' next to Rema's album-opening 'Divine' — both turn a first verse into a personal manifesto before the hook even lands.