11/07/2025
Rema Breaks The Silence On His Most Cryptic Album—HEIS
Exactly one year ago today, HEIS arrived — enigmatic, symbolic, and unsettling. Not just a Rema album, but a self-portrait in code. A cryptic dispatch from the future-facing mind of an artist who never hid his sense of purpose, only the reasons behind it. We danced. We guessed. Some of us even theorized. But now, one year later, Rema breaks the fourth wall — offering what he calls an “Author’s Note.” The mask shifts. The curtains draw. And beneath the music lies something older, deeper, more prophetic than we assumed.
The Dragon Awakens
“I was born in a Dragon year.”
In Chinese astrology, the Dragon is fire incarnate — mythic, divine, unrelenting. 2024, a Dragon year, thus held symbolic gravity. For Rema, HEIS wasn’t just an album; it was a spiritual convergence. The subtle rage we first glimpsed on “Bounce” — now explained — was not a mood or trend but a coded clue. On its cover, a dragon. The first public symbol of a brewing inferno within. HEIS had to happen in 2024. It was cosmically timed. It was not promotion — it was prophecy.
The Death Of Innocence
Between the Ravage era and Rave & Roses Ultra, Rema littered his visuals with iconography. The teddy bear — a recurring totem — showed up mutilated, burned, impaled, abandoned in graveyards. The roses? Set ablaze. No PR interviews dissected this, but now, Rema confirms: it was all intentional. A symbolic purge of innocence. Youth set on fire. It was never aesthetics for aesthetics’ sake. The burning toys were metaphors. He was shedding his skin — preparing for ego death.
Ravage, The Brain, And The Dead Horseman
Few fans paused to zoom in on the Ravage cover art. Even fewer noticed the glowing pineal gland — a reference to the “third eye” or seat of awakening. Fused into this was the silhouette of a horse-mounted co**se, tethered by a strand of hair to the brain. It was obscure, even grotesque — but it meant something: the death of the old self, the rise of the diviner. These are not the metaphors of a pop star. These are the signs of a spiritualist, a mythmaker, a child of Edo with one foot in the matrix and the other in the shrine.
The Woman Warrior And The O2 Stage
When Rema made his 20k-capacity O2 Arena debut, he didn’t just perform — he performed a ritual. He came as Queen Idia. He rode in on a horse. The mask — adorned with real chakra stones — wasn’t for show. It was an energy vessel. And in retrospect, it was a reclamation.
The bronze head of Queen Idia, one of Nigeria’s most looted artifacts, resides in London museums — not far from where Rema stood that night. But instead of pleading for return, he brought her back himself. Through performance. Through power.
But the aftermath? “I passed on too much rawness,” he says now. “Y’all were not ready.” That show broke something open in him. It marked the peak of Rage as we knew it — and the beginning of HEIS.
The Return, The Key, The King
After five years away, he returned home. Not quietly, but in divine sequence. He sold out a stadium. He received blessings from the Oba of Benin. He left with a medal — a key.
This is where HEIS distills. This is what it’s for. Jesus had his “I Am.” Neo had his “The One.” Rema has HEIS — an album not named in English, but in Greek. Not for flair, but for meaning. It means “He is.” But more importantly, it means: He decides who he is. No award, no Western validation, no playlist mattered more than this return.
The Underground Sound, The Uncommercial Project
Rema told his label HEIS didn’t need fanfare. No CDs. No vinyl. No merch. It wasn’t a product. It was a relic. He kept it minimal, almost cryptic — something for those who knew. “Not for surface level supporters,” he said. No dopamine dealers. Just the story-bearers. The ones who showed up in all black, leather boots, carrying the rage like gospel. And this? This wasn’t arrogance. It was artistic discipline.
The Naruto Mask and The Great Misreading
HEIS cover art was inspired by Itachi from Naruto. That, too, was deliberate. Itachi — often misunderstood — committed acts seen as betrayal to protect the greater good. So did Rema, in his own way. His shift in sound. The smoking. The visual choices. The aesthetics. The silence. They weren’t betrayals. They were cover-ups — protective illusions hiding deep love and deeper sacrifice. You thought he fell off? You thought he switched up? You didn’t read the story right.
The Co-Producer, The Unspoken Emotions
Rema co-produced most of HEIS. And if you listened closely, you heard things words couldn’t hold. The sonic textures weren’t just beats — they were emotion, trapped and translated. That’s why he landed nominations in producer categories. He wasn’t chasing titles — he was trying to feel understood.
The Disciples And The Doubters
In his final reflection, Rema thanks the true Ravers — the ones who walked with him, dressed the part, carried the story. But he also names the doubters. “Thanks to the Peters, the Johns, the Thomases, and the Judas who betrayed the course.” It’s not bitterness. It’s acknowledgment. Every story needs them. The faithful and the faithless.
Conclusion: Rema, Remade
One year later, HEIS stands as one of the most symbol-laden, emotionally complex albums ever released by an African artist. And its author — who warned us from the beginning that he was the future — has finally completed a loop that began long before “Dumebi.” Rema is no longer a teenage prodigy. He is no longer a prince of hits. He is now, more than ever, what he has always said HE IS. And now, we understand.
