Rema and the Evolution of the Afrobeats Sound

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For many years, the term Afrobeats, referring to a West African pop style that integrates dancehall, rap, and R. & B. with traditional African rhythms, was controversial, rejected by some artists for being overly broad. Afrobeats—distinct from the sixties and seventies genre Afrobeat, pioneered by Fela Kuti, which blended Yoruba music and Ghanaian highlife with American funk and jazz—had been defined primarily by an assimilating nature, drawing sounds from across the African diaspora into a composite with a contemporary feel. The shape-shifting singer and rapper Rema was one of the first to not only bask in Afrobeats’ influence and self-identify as a practitioner but to dedicate his work to pushing the idea of the style forward.

Photograph by Adrienne Raquel

The musician, born in Benin City, grew up in the shadow of Nigeria’s fledgling pop industry, which rose from the foundation laid, in the early two-thousands, by the label Mo’ Hits Records, founded by the trailblazing pop figures Don Jazzy and D’banj. In 2019, Rema, at the age of nineteen, signed with Jazzy’s follow-up venture, Mavin Records, and has since followed the Mo’ Hits ethos to its logical conclusion; there are no seams in his sound, which takes a holistic approach to pop songcraft, smooth vocals, rap cadences, subtle yet dynamic drums, and warm production, all in service of a product that isn’t so much “genreless” as it is cross-cultural, informed by a long view of musical history. Rema’s singular style furthered the efforts of fusionists such as Wizkid and Burna Boy, and he came to represent the appeal of the genre’s syntheses. This paid off accordingly—a remix, with Selena Gomez, of his single “Calm Down,” from 2022, is the biggest African pop song of all time. The hit was the cornerstone of the deluxe edition of Rema’s début album, “Rave & Roses,” and installed him as Afro-pop’s crown prince.

Rema, not satisfied by simply entering the pantheon his predecessors built, has since made it his mission to redraw the boundaries of his chosen form. His 2024 album, “HEIS,” is another Afrobeats landmark. It bears a unique signature: dark and propulsive, it’s full of squelching tones and zippy vocal performances, mixing orchestral splendor, spooky synth progressions, and high-powered rhythms. The record feels like the next evolution of the Afrobeats sound, delivered by someone deeply invested in its present and its future. On May 2, Rema celebrates the form at Madison Square Garden.—Sheldon Pearce

About Town

Broadway

Twelve years after the making-of-a-musical series “Smash” sputtered on NBC, it’s been reborn as a silly, slap-happy Broadway show, directed by Susan Stroman. Devotees of the original (we exist!) will find familiar elements, including tuneful songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray”)—always “Smash” ’s chief asset. The story still concerns “Bombshell,” a troubled bio-musical about Marilyn Monroe, with Ivy (Robyn Hurder) and Karen (Caroline Bowman) competing for the star role. Much else has been revamped. Rick Elice and Bob Martin’s book could use more acid in its zingers, and the plot barely hangs together. The laughs come mostly from Brooks Ashmanskas, as a swishy gay director, and Kristine Nielsen, as a Svengali acting coach. (Yes, these are types beamed in from the sixties.) If it weren’t a glorious mess, though, would it still be “Smash”?—Michael Schulman (Imperial; open run.)

For more: read Emily Nussbaum on her love and then hate for the NBC series.

Digicore

The hyperpop microgenre digicore—a chaotic, internet-forward mashup of music styles born on Discord servers for use in the video game Minecraft—might have vanished into the ether if not for the explosive artist Jane Remover. Inspired primarily by E.D.M. producers such as Skrillex and Porter Robinson and the rappers Tyler, the Creator and Trippie Redd, the Newark-born musician débuted at seventeen, as dltzk, with the EP “Teen Week” (2021), helping to define an obscure anti-pop scene moving at warp speed. Their music’s wide bandwidth now spans the pitched-up sampling of the album “dariacore” (under the alias Leroy) and the emo-leaning work of the side project Venturing. This all-devouring approach culminates in the ecstatic thrasher album “Revengeseekerz,” a maximalist tour de force that makes ephemerality feel urgent.—Sheldon Pearce (Music Hall of Williamsburg; May 3.)

Dance

“Opal Loop / Cloud Installation #72503,” from 1980, is also on the program.

Photograph by Maria Baranova

The late choreographer Trisha Brown often worked in cycles, in which she explored a compositional approach, or a performance setting, or a style of movement. This week, her Trisha Brown Dance Company stages pieces from one such period, the “Unstable Molecular Structures” cycle, characterized by a cool, slippery, loose-limbed style undergirded by complex compositional systems. In “Son of Gone Fishin’,” from 1981, for example, the dancers’ constantly fluid patterns, which look as random and natural as ripples on water, are built upon blocks of movement reordered in numerous intricate ways. The effect is otherworldly. The group also presents a new work, “Time again,” by the Brown protégé Lee Serle.—Marina Harss (Joyce Theatre; April 29-May 4.)

Ambient

It’s no surprise that the musician Tim Hecker, a producer of thoughtful and meticulous compositions, was once an aspiring academic. Nor is it surprising that the subject of his Ph.D. was megaphonics, a.k.a. loud sound, specifically its ability to “paralyze the body, empty the mind and even threaten life.” Hecker’s soundscapes—which evoke bathing in a Jacuzzi filled with TV static—routinely accomplish at least two of these items. His work is often abstract: even in his (relatively) more melodic tracks, like those on the 2013 album “Virgins,” there’s a noisy steam shrouding the tonal core. But if the tunes are lacking in, well, tune, they’re enriched by a layering and sense of rhythm unparalleled in contemporary electronic music.—Leo Lasdun (Public Records; April 29-May 1.)

Broadway

Maggie Kuntz, Morgan Scott, and Amalia Yoo.

Photograph by Julieta Cervantes

One thing from Arthur Miller’s much debated “The Crucible” proves true in “John Proctor Is the Villain,” an electric high-school drama from Kimberly Belflower: girls are a galvanizing force, as long as they stick together. Gabriel Ebert plays a beloved English teacher, whose charm both attracts and upsets his young students, including striving Beth (Fina Strazza), furious Shelby (Sadie Sink), and the minister’s daughter Raelynn (Amalia Yoo). Belflower places Miller’s same elements—infidelity, accusation, outraged male honor—in slightly different order here, exploring the ways that girls negotiate their first, faint power. We think that we’re watching laughter and dance breaks, but really it’s an arsenal these girls will need all their lives: sororial solidarity and a willingness to tell the truth and shame the devil.—Helen Shaw (Booth; through July 6.)

Movies

The documentary “Drop Dead City,” directed by Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn, unfolds, in fascinating detail, the economic and political intricacies of the financial crisis that brought New York City to the brink of bankruptcy, in 1975—and the complexity of the last-minute rescue. The title alludes to a surprisingly consequential headline, in the New York Daily News, after then President Gerald Ford refused a federal bailout. The film is a symphony of voices, featuring recent interviews with many of the original participants—businesspeople, union leaders, political officials—along with archival clips documenting key events and conveying the tone of the times. Rohatyn’s late father, Felix Rohatyn, an investment banker, was perhaps the city’s prime rescuer, and the connection energizes the film with personal fervor.—Richard Brody (IFC Center.)

For more: read Jeff Nussbaum’s investigation, from 2015, of what happened the night New York City saved itself from bankruptcy.

P.S. Good stuff on the internet: