Rema’s ‘Dumebi’ is Rihanna’s Favourite

Days after Drake confirmed having collaboration with Rema, the Nigerian star has attracted another American artiste, Rihanna, to his music. Ferdinand Ekechukwu reports

Mavin /Jonzin records star, Divine Ikubor popularly known as Rema is steadily gaining international attention with his fresh sound and it’s no surprise that his hit track ‘Dumebi’ has earned huge followership in the afrobeats scene. The latest to join in the frenzy is American singer and songwriter, Rihanna who was seen vibing to the song; dropping mad dance steps to Rema’s song on her Instalive, away from her dad’s corona virus diagnosis.

This is coming days after another American rapper Drake was seen vibing to the same sound and even confirmed having collaboration with the young Nigerian star. Reacting to the video which has gone viral on the internet, Rema hailed the pop princess for vibing to his song. Hailing her as a queen, he wrote “Woke up to Rihanna vibing to my sound. A queen.” Reacting to the trend, CEO Mavin records, Don Jazzy, who crushes on Rihanna took to his Instagram page to share a video of her dancing to the song.

He captioned the video saying “Father lord when? We getting closer guys lol @badgalriri on that #Dumebi by @heisrema”. Being one of the youngest in the music industry, Rema has been dropping hit songs that have been making waves in the industry and topping charts especially two songs on his EP – Iron man and Dumebi. Sometime in February, 2020, Rema performed alongside another American rapper 2 Chainz at the NBA All-Star Weekend Event.

Rema had previously made the announcement of his performance on his Twitter page with the caption, “Tonight! NBA all-star weekend, Chicago see you soon!” The fast-rising artiste performed alongside American rapper, 2 Chainz. The NBA All-Star Weekend where Rema and 2 Chainz performed was held in Chicago, Illinois. Along with his released songs, Rema also performed an unreleased song at Club Vienna Afterhours in Boston.

He would then tweet about the event saying, “Performed an unreleased song in Boston and they loved it! Thank you, Boston!” According to a Twitter user, the unreleased song Rema performed is titled Ima Alien. In April 2019, Rema released his debut project, Rema EP which had the single, ‘Dumebi’ in its four-track list. As the song has grown, so has Rema. While the lead track ‘Iron Man’ featured on the Obamas’ summer playlist, ‘Dumebi’ became arguably one of the most popular Afrobeats singles of 2019 and immediately propelled the young and unknown singer at the time into mainstream consciousness.

Almost a year after its initial release, Rema remixed the groundbreaking single and recruited American star of Latin origin, Becky G, for a collaboration. Becky G is well known for her 2014 ‘Showers’, which was a top-twenty record on the much-celebrated Billboard Hot 100 chart. She sings her feature on the remixed ‘Dumebi’ in Spanish. This was after releasing his short film titled, ‘Rema’s Realm’. The ‘Dumebi’ remix maintains its original beat with Rema almost keeping his verse intact. Becky G however gave it a new life, delivering a solid performance in her native tongue.tt