REMA

The Nigerian superstar is redefining Afrobeats — and has already scored a record-breaking single in the process. But to get here, he had to overcome a tragic past

- MANKAPRR CONTEH

For Rema, the best part of his first trip to the Grammy Awards was getting dressed for it. The Nigerian superstar wore a mound of custom diamonds over snakeskin and leather in his customary black, an outfit that landed him on Vogue's list of best-dressed stars at the February ceremony. He didn't win the award he was up for — Best Global Music Album, which went to the lesser-known Matt B, alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra — but he didn't really mind. “I was just taking every moment in,” he tells me when I meet him at Interscope Studios in L.A. a few days later. “I was celebrating people walking up that stage. I had my fingers crossed that I'd walk up the stage too, and when it didn't happen... it happens. It's not the first award that I got nominated for and didn't get.”

That outfit — or, rather, what it signified — was much more important. The crown jewel of his look that night, which can also be seen on the cover of this magazine, was a thick-linked chain that drops portraits of his late father and brother on the center of his chest, emblazoned on a bed of precious stones. His brother wears a green dashiki and gazes to the left, while his dad, in a jacket and tie, looks to the right. “I feel like their eyes can see everywhere I go,” Rema says. “So if I was going to be on that Grammy stage, they're going to see how far I walked, all the way up. It feels like they're there with me.”

Ambitious and ultra-local, with pummeling percussion and fierce taunts in Nigerian pidgin, the album Rema was nominated for — last year's Heis — boldly honored his roots and commanded respect. Rema joined Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, and Tems as the only Afrobeats acts to earn album nominations in the history of the Grammys. At 24, he's the youngest of them.