Nigerian music star Rema, whose real name is Divine Ikubor, has shared why he changed his style before dropping his second album, HEIS, last year.

Rema said his new look — dropping his famous mask and teddy bear for tattoos, smoking, and darker colors — was part of a rebranding. He also changed the way his music and videos looked and sounded.

Marking the one-year anniversary of HEIS on Thursday, Rema explained that his updated image, including the smoking, was not him changing who he is. He said it’s just part of how he expresses himself artistically.

He posted on his X account

“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 ).”

The singer added that the album’s cover art, which drew a lot of attention, was influenced by the anime character Itachi Uchiha from the Japanese series Naruto.

Interestingly, this is similar to what fellow Nigerian rapper Shallipopi said last year. Shallipopi told fans that even though he’s seen with cigarettes in his photos and videos, he doesn’t actually smoke. He said the cigarettes are just props for artistic effect.