Rema closed out Rolling Stone’s Future of Music Showcase at SXSW last week with an electric performance of perfected charisma and rage. But, just last month, in a much quieter moment, Rema gave us an intimate look into his habits, tastes, goals, and history for his first Rolling Stone cover story. He took us deep into his heavy lore and lighter quirks, with some tidbits that didn’t make the story among them.
Rema’s favorite Rema song is …
“It’s ‘Addicted,’ definitely,” the star tells us of the synth-pop throwback on his debut album, Rave & Roses, that he made on a whim with the producer London. “When we’re together, we’re smoking and we’re just jamming to our own stuff. We don’t even look forward to what the fans think or if we’re going to share this with fans until probably when we’re playing music for the team. The most I’ve done to care is like, ‘Oh, home needs more African sound. We are doing too much global stuff — we just need to touch base a little bit.’ That’s when I feel like I cared the most.”
He’s been smoking and drinking for a lot longer than he let on
Cigarettes have become a kind of mascot in Rema’s Heis era, an edgy turn from the sweet-voiced teen he emerged on the scene as. However, Rema says he’s had vices like that long before he let the world in on them. “I’ve always been smoking. A kid who runs away from home?” he says, nodding to the way he left his family without a trace to make money for them in another country after his father died. “I [didn’t] want my career to start off with me, a 19-year-old with a cigarette. When I went to Ghana, I was smoking, I was drinking.”
He stopped when he first got a shot at music, but quietly picked the habits back up in 2020. “My inner circle knew, but I didn’t tell the fans,” he says. “I just felt like there’s different points of vulnerability. In my career, I want to monetize everything. You just can’t know me just because you want to know me. I feel like there’s a story that I can put towards every part of me that will reward me, not just letting it go for your entertainment.”
He uses different substances in different ways, he explains. He uses tobacco as a stimulant, smokes an indica before bed, and sativa when he’s active. Rema says he can handle about ten shots during a long night of partying. He’ll also stay sober for stretches of time too, for his health. “Sometimes, you need to cleanse,” he says. “I stop when I need to stop, and I start when I need to start.”
He and Odumodublvck spoke after Odumodu’s stage collapsed in December
This past December, Nigeria’s popular Nativeland music festival faced a real scare — its stage collapsed just as Native Records rapper Odumodublvck and his crew took it. Frightening footage from the incident circulated online. Native, which boasts an online publication as well as a label, reported that there were no deaths but some injuries. Rema tells Rolling Stone he spoke to Odumodublvck after — the pair are friendly, and Odumodublvck was featured on the Heis track “War Machine.” “I wasn’t scared for myself, but I was scared for other people,” Odumodublvck tells Rolling Stone in a separate interview. “Luckily, there was no serious casualty.”
Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Davido have all given him feedback on Heis
In his cover-story interview, while discussing the way he inserted himself into Afrobeats’ oft-named “Big Three” by expanding it to the “big four” in his song “Heis,” Rema mentions that he’s also heard Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Davido’s takes on the album. He decides to keep their reviews to himself, though. “Even when there was a big three or a big two or big one before them, they used to talk that shit,” Rema says, defending his own braggadocio. “Davido used to say, ‘I’m bigger than all of you.’ Wiz used to say ‘Dem say dem bad, but I swear dem do nothing, oh,’” Rema sings, hearkening to Wizkid’s 2013 hook on Maleek Berry’s “The Matter.” “Burna has been talking that shit for God knows how long.”
Rema and Justine Skye never dated, either
In the cover-story, Rema details his long-standing friendship with Tyla, stating that the two artists have never been romantic. He makes a similar clarification when asked about singer Justine Skye. Some fans suspected those two had dated as well. The pair collaborated on Skye’s song “Twisted Fantasy” and were seen celebrating her birthday together. “We’re good friends,” he says of Tyla, Skye, and his label mate Ayra Starr. “I’m a G, they know I’m G’d up. If I want to move that way, I would express it, but I never did because that was not my intent.”
He doesn’t necessarily prefer to date women in the entertainment industry, either, he says. “I literally just date anyone I vibe with properly and I have a liking for. It’s not career-based, it’s not clout-based. I feel like when someone understands me and they like me, they know what it takes to be in my world and they know the kind of person I am.”
Peace, loyalty, transparency, and respect are what he looks for in a partner
“Respect is very key, especially to an African man,” he says. He thinks about respect as honoring each other’s boundaries and being clear about their own. “There’s one thing my ex did that has stood out. We were trying to get to the car, and the security was trying to hold her hand, so that she was like, ‘Only Rema can hold my hand. Lead me to the car, but don’t hold my hand.’” Rema found it amusing, but touching. “I was like, ‘Take her to the car,’” he says, sucking his teeth and playfully dismissing her rigidity. “I didn’t really care much, but I understand it.”
Rema says he’s the “funniest in my friend group”
He tells Rolling Stone that most of his inner circle consists of his staff — like his art director, a friend from Benin City — and their family members. Because of this, everyone is tight-knit and invested in one another, he explains. They’re not yes-men, he says, and allow him to maintain a sense of privacy and freedom. “I’m actually a very fun guy. I would say I’m the funniest in my group, like [of] my boys. I’m the life of the party. I’m everything at once. I can be serious when I need to be serious.”
He doesn’t think therapy is right for him
While he doesn’t disapprove of therapy generally and acknowledges it can be useful for others, Rema doesn’t see himself taking it up. “I don’t feel like it’s going to help me as much,” he says. “They let you talk until you find the answer by yourself. Then they place the time limits. They need to see the next person. It’s like, ‘Am I finished?’ You tell me I’ll feel better next week, or next month, or by next session.” He notes that his unique experiences have helped him stay grounded. “I feel like with my rough childhood, I’ve been able to handle a lot of situations myself, that my heart gave me my own appraisal, that I can figure it out. It’s longer when I figure it out myself, but it sticks.”
A day in his life looks like …
Rema, perhaps unsurprisingly, doesn’t have a regular sleep schedule, so whenever he wakes up, he prays, he takes a shower, and he eats. If he’s home, he’ll cook a breakfast for himself: oatmeal with banana, berries, and apples. He also likes toast. Then he’ll smoke a blunt and work, with the guidance of his personal assistant. In between working, he’ll play adventure video games like Red Dead Redemption and Ghost of Tsushima. He’ll play online with friends but doesn’t normally talk through headsets while he does. He also loves anime, though he’s an emotional TV and film critic. “The only thing I don’t like about their movies is when they get my expectations so high and then they just fuck up and I’m just pissed off at the plot, maybe the actual [characters]. It’s like, ‘Why would you do that?’ And I just turn off the show.”
He thinks Afrobeats producers don’t get enough flowers
Rema says he earned a large chunk of Heis’ production credits for shaping its sound with his go-to producers London and P. Priime, with whom he’d share voice notes of himself beat-boxing the kinds of music he wanted. He says Afrobeats producers could use a little more credit, especially for “being able to tap into different artists’ worlds at the same time.” He appreciates his process with London and P. Priime. “We don’t sit in the studio trying to look for a hit,” he says. “First all, it’s like, ‘Rema, what are you feeling? Do you have any ideas? No? Yes?’ And then we just go from there. We just love making stuff that we want to enjoy. If we have a vision or an agenda to achieve, we’ll achieve it through music instead of yapping.”
