"I Was a Ghost" - Rema Talks Dark Moments That Followed His Dad and Brother's Passing

Nigerian singer Rema is the latest cover star of Rolling Stone Magazine, and during his interview on the show, Rema made a lot of revelations about his family, his late father and brother, and how life was forever changed after their passing; as well as how he still honors them till today.

Rema during the interview preferred to keep his family members’ names private and was not comfortable discussing the way his father died when he was 8. Still, he was open to talking about the aftermath of his father's loss, and also the loss of his brother who according to Rema's old tweets died from a botched surgery about seven years after his dad died. Speaking about that time in his life, and how their deaths changed him forever, Rema said:

REMA: It’s dark. Just a dark moment that changed my life, so I always wear this chain, mostly because I never want to forget. While any craziness or any fantastic shit is happening, I always remind myself, ‘Know the struggles you came from,’ because for real, people be forgetting.”

The chain Rema is referring to is this chain that displays portraits of his late father and brother. It's a chain he wears a lot and also wore to the Grammy awards and speaking more about the chain, Rema said:

REMA: I feel like their eyes can see everywhere I go. 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.

Talking further about his dad and brother's passing, and the aftermath of that, Rema reveals that following his dad's passing, the Ikubors were shunned by most of their extended family, thanks to cultural superstition that his mom was somehow to blame.

When the journalist asked “Was it like a ‘Oh, she did witchcraft’-type beat?” Rema confirmed so, saying:

REMA: Type shit. We took all the backlash for it, and then we lost everything.

Rema revealed his family was unable to make rent with his father gone, and so they were evicted from their apartment and had to move to his mother’s village, five hours away from Benin City. Describing that time and place, Rema said:

REMA: We’re talking about huts. A mud house with mad boxes, mad mosquitoes, sun flies. When they bite you, if you scratch one [bump], you get 10. It can go all the way to your face.

It wasn't all bad though. Rema reveals saying:

REMA: Even when we were not rich, my mom was like, ‘I have to look good. She took us to the market to buy us big-ass shoes, big-ass jeans that we’d wear for the next three years as we grow. She was the only person switching up the fits. She gave off so much aura in church.

But then, when Rema was 17, his mom became pregnant with his stepbrother, and things grew untenable for him. According to Rema, he was thinking of his mother's situation at the time:

REMA: You’re pregnant, and you’re still crying because you know that there’s no money to even take care of this kid. And I couldn’t go to university. I was actually just angry at the whole situation. Talking will not help. Doing will.

And that is how without saying goodbye, Rema left for Ghana, where he knew he could make money to support his family. According to Rema, his mom thought he had died. He said:

REMA: There was no number to reach me. I was a ghost. She thought I just went somewhere and committed suicide because it was a lot going on.

Rema really opened up in this interview with Rolling Stone. What do you think about what the singer had to say? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment either below or on my Jide Okonjo Facebook post.

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