a divine return stuffed with feel-good flooring fillers

Rema is a person with one thing to show – particularly after a polarising 2023 O2 London present that left some followers disturbed by supposedly Satanic imagery. It’s no shock that the musician named Divine Ikubor would wish to appropriate the file. He does simply that on shock album ‘Heis’, an 11-track spectacle stuffed with feverish feel-good flooring fillers to carry out that primal feeling of pleasure.

‘Heis’ opens with the Afrorave powerhouse’s signature chuckle, however takes you to unknown territory with the enthralling, synth-heavy ‘March Am’ and ‘Azaman’. Mixing orchestral strings, thumping drums and (on the previous) a automobile’s revving engine, these energetic gems reaffirm Rema as a real rhythm scientist.

Right here and all through the file, the Nigerian juggernaut understands how one can wield his voice as an extra instrument. On ‘Hehehe’, he raises his voice to a mocking squeak, declaring, “I’m not gonna take it simple on my hater”. The frenetic ‘Ozeba’ feels nostalgic for 2010s Afrobeats – and his circulation feels much like the rolling drums we hear in different tracks on ‘Heis’. Whereas being unapologetically daring, Rema reminds the world you can’t play with greatness.

The 24-year-old additionally goes again to what’s lately been profitable for him: amapiano. Final 12 months’s ‘Ravage’ EP was a suave assortment of earworms resembling ‘DND’ and ‘Don’t Go away’ – this 12 months he recreates the identical magic with ‘Yayo’ and ‘Benin Boys’. The pulsing 808s and hissing hi-hats flood the ears – you’re sure to attempt your finest to do the Umlando dance to those infectious pick-me-ups. On the latter, he and fellow rising Afropop star Shallipopi throw a vibrant celebration of their hometown of Benin Metropolis and confidently say they’re worthy of a king’s honour: “Na we be the delight of Benin, Oba sef suppose give us medal”.

Rema tries every thing on ‘Heis’. Conductor Williams-style manufacturing opens ‘Conflict Machine’ earlier than we get right into a head-shaking, confidence-oozing anthem with one in all Nigeria’s largest exports, Odumodublvck. Rema goes again to the syrupy excessive register we love him for on ‘Villain’, which layers a soul-catching amapiano bassline with a moody pattern of the tune ‘A&W’ by Lana Del Rey – somebody he’s adored for years.

It ends with the pensive, balladic ‘Now I Know’, the place he displays on the love he has and has misplaced, however ‘Heis’ in the end serves its objective and exhibits who Rema really is: a dancefloor mastermind that might be a face of Afropop for many years to return.

Particulars:

• Launch date: July 11, 2024
• Report label: Marvin Information/Jonzing World