Nigerian Afrobeats sensation Divine Ikubor, also known as Rema, has opened up about the reasons behind his abrupt rebrand, which saw him ditch his characteristic mask and teddy bear in favor of tattoos, smoking, and darker aesthetics.

The musician explained that his change, which included the contentious on-screen smoking, was a planned “expression of art” rather than a betrayal of his nature.

Speaking on the one-year anniversary of his sophomore album, ‘HEIS,’ the ‘Calm Down’ crooner in a post on social media clarified that the rebrand was deeply symbolic.

Rema further explained on his official X page (formerly Twitter) that the album cover itself was inspired by Itachi Uchiha from the Japanese anime series Naruto.

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He also maintained in his post that, contrary to what some followers thought, the change was only artistic and symbolic and not a crisis of personal identity.

Rema wrote, “HEIS, the Anniversary. I expressed a lot of surface-level reasons why I released this project over the 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.

“Consider this an Author’s note; “The cover was inspired by Itachi in Naruto. The Truth masked as illusion, Love buried under what y’all thought was betrayal ( change of sound, smoking , looks, aesthetics & choice of color ).”