Nigerian singer, Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema, has explained the motive for his rebranding in the build up to the release of his sophomore album, ‘HEIS,’ last year.

The singer rebranded by ditching his signature mask, Teddy bear, and embracing tattoos, smoking, and darker colours. He also changed his sound and aesthetics.

Speaking on the one year anniversary of his sophomore album on Thursday, Rema clarified that his rebranding, including smoking, was just an expression of art and not betrayal of his personality as many presumed.

He explained that the controversial album cover was inspired by Japanese anime series Naruto character, Itachi Uchiha.

On his X handle, he wrote, “HEIS, the Anniversary.

“I expressed a lot of surface level reasons why I released this project over a 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 ).”

UGAMATV recalls that rapper Shallipopi also made similar claims last year when he stated that he doesn’t smoke despite posing with cigarettes in his pictures and videos.

He claimed that he uses cigarettes for aesthetics.