When Rema is in the studio, he pursues sounds and sensations that he says touch his soul. Ignoring this instinctive creative process could\u2019ve yielded a different rendition of a \u201cCalm Down\u201d remix \u2014 possibly one without Selena Gomez.<\/p>\n
The original version of the Nigerian musician\u2019s midtempo hit \u201cCalm Down\u201d arrived a year ago as the second single from his March 2022 debut studio album, Rave & Roses. The enticing, ambient song finds Rema pleading with a young woman at a local club to trust that his intentions are pure. The track, produced by fellow Nigerian native Andre Vibez, oozes with his signature style of Afrobeats, which he calls Afro-rave \u2014 a subgenre influenced by his love for hip-hop, African music, lo-fi and alternative.<\/p>\n
After Rema, 22, noticed the single beginning to take off (debuting on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart two months after its release), he knew he had to capitalize on the momentum, so he trusted his gut and recruited a woman \u201ctake it up to the next level\u201d \u2014 and immediately knew that Gomez was the right fit. The \u201cCalm Down\u201d remix reaches a new No. 26 high on this week\u2019s Billboard Hot 100 and holds its top position on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a 23rd week. Billboard spoke with the rising artist about the making of his biggest hit to date, his plans to give back to Nigeria and pushing Afrobeats forward.<\/p>\n
After Rema, 22, noticed the single beginning to take off (debuting on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart two months after its release), he knew he had to capitalize on the momentum, so he trusted his gut and recruited a woman \u201ctake it up to the next level\u201d \u2014 and immediately knew that Gomez was the right fit. The \u201cCalm Down\u201d remix reaches a new No. 26 high on this week\u2019s Billboard Hot 100 and holds its top position on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a 23rd week. Billboard spoke with the rising artist about the making of his biggest hit to date, his plans to give back to Nigeria and pushing Afrobeats forward.<\/p>\n
What has it been like watching the song transform into a global hit?<\/p>\n
Every day I wake up to good news. Not just good news about how well my career is going; it\u2019s about how well my culture is flying. Afrobeats is going to the next level. This song is opening doors and bridges. Listeners want to know what more is coming from Nigeria, what more is coming from Africa. I\u2019m so happy. I\u2019m happy for me, my team, the culture and for Selena. She embraced the sound, and she did her own thing. It was the right timing [with] the right person, and the impact has been so huge. Seeing people who don\u2019t speak my language sing my song word-for-word really shows that people are impacted by the sound, and I\u2019m grateful for it.<\/p>\n
Why do you think \u201cCalm Down\u201d has been such a long-lasting hit?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just about the song \u2014 it\u2019s also about me and the gift that God has blessed me with. I work in the studio with no plans. I just create. However any of my songs go, I love them the same way. I push them the same way. I feel like people just pick whatever resonates with them. There\u2019s no single element I could really pick out. If I focus on that, that would just box me in somehow. I don\u2019t know what it is, it\u2019s just good music.<\/p>\n
Tell me about the song\u2019s creative process. Did you assist Selena with her verse?<\/p>\n
That was all Selena and her team. I don\u2019t really know what her creative process is like, but we did it remotely and she was very concerned about how the record was supposed to turn out. Every move she made on the song, she always wanted to know if I was good with it. Some artists just be like, \u201cWhatever I did is dope. Have it,\u201d but she wanted to know if I resonated with whatever she did on it \u2014 and I did. I loved it. The only part I switched was with my producers: we touched more parts of the beat and let her verse breathe, but nothing else.<\/p>\n
What have you learned from working with her?<\/p>\n
When working with other artists, you should care every step of the way. She cared. I learned caring. When she started working on it, she called me on FaceTime, and we talked a little about it. The mixing, the music video, making sure that she didn\u2019t take from it. It wasn\u2019t like, \u201cOh, [it\u2019s] Selena Gomez, so we have to switch the whole idea to something else,\u201d she just embraced it. She\u2019s such a hard worker, knowing how much she does. She acts, she has a makeup line, she does music. She has busy s\u2013t to do, but she\u2019s been promoting [to] her fanbase and has been very genuine, loving, kind and supportive of me. Even aside from \u201cCalm Down,\u201d [her fanbase] also supports my other music, just because I did a collaboration with Selena. That\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n
What was the song\u2019s initial inspiration?<\/p>\n
I was at a party, and a couple of girls walked in, and I saw a girl in yellow. I wanted to talk to her and her friends were being really stuck up. They didn\u2019t really want to chat. And I was like, \u201cYo, just calm down. Let\u2019s have a chat.\u201d And then she actually calmed down, and we started talking and dancing. When she left the party, she was on my mind, and I wanted to see her again. That was it. I walked in the studio fresh out of that emotion.<\/p>\n
Who is your dream collaboration?<\/p>\n
Bad Bunny. That\u2019s my dream collab right now.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Rolling Stone, you called your sound Afro-rave. Would \u201cCalm Down\u201d be a part of that movement or is this something entirely different?<\/p>\n
Any music that comes from my mouth is Afro. You can tell that my sound is very distinctive out of every other Afrobeat artist, but it doesn\u2019t take away the fact that Afro-rave was birthed through Afrobeats. [Afro-rave] is a subgenre. Burna [Boy] has his subgenre because he\u2019s the only one doing him, you feel me? CKay, Fireboy DML, etc., they all got what they do, and some people just keep it straight with the old genres. I didn\u2019t take it away from Afrobeat being my inspiration, but it\u2019s just me posing to evolve the sound to something else. I worked hard for the sound, [and] I got criticized a lot until it started making its own wave. So I feel like it needs to be labeled. It\u2019s knowing something is special and you trademark it. It\u2019s me vouching for my art, my creation.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next for you?<\/p>\n
I really want to keep focusing on impacting the African youth. I feel like before I started getting global [recognition], my fellow Africans have been my huge propeller. They\u2019re the ones who took me to the world.<\/p>\n
I want to focus on building up our trust between artists and fanbases. We\u2019re doing so much [in] other parts of the world [that] are developed and have better infrastructure. Whatever is coming into the culture, I would like to reinvest in it. We have to start putting up good shows. We have to start making people come to us. It\u2019s good to do world tours, but we all need to come together to build Africa. As much as we are traveling, making the news, blah blah blah, I just really want to focus on home.<\/p>\n
What do you want to do specifically to focus on the African youth and give back to your community?<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s on some charity level type s\u2013t. It\u2019s based on the infrastructure that creators need. There are a lot of complaints coming from directors, painters, even musicians \u2014 fans don\u2019t trust artists anymore because the shows are not being put up nicely. We need infrastructure. It\u2019s important. The rest of the world is giving us that, but I think it\u2019s very important that we actually invest in ourselves, because we really want the world to come to us.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re going to Ghana, they\u2019re going to Tanzania, they\u2019re going to a lot of places to watch Afrobeats artists, but we really need to focus on Nigeria here right now. The lineups in different African countries are a lot of Nigerian artists, but our infrastructure is very necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigerian musician discusses how his first Hot 100 entry came together, working with Selena Gomez and his plans to give back to Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":25448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,31],"tags":[7,14,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-25451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-music","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"yoast_head":"\n