VIDEO: Rema said a lot of artistes copy his style during an interview with Swizz Beatz for Rollingstone Magazine

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Rema said a lot of artistes copy his style during an interview with Swizz Beatz for Rollingstone Magazine.

“I’ve been on the road for four years and I’m working on changing the sound,the culture and branding, I’ve seen a lot of artists that copy my style and I’m flattered by it” Rema said. 

Swizz: How does it feel, coming from where you’re coming from, to be here in L.A., where we’re at? You have a show in a couple of hours where people are gonna be screaming and singing for you, and you’re all the way in America. Did you digest that yet?

Rema: I’m still taking it in. Like I tell my boys … sometimes I don’t feel famous at all. I just feel like I’m chosen to do this. If there was no me, there would be no one else.

Swizz: When you’re trailblazing, people wanna follow the blaze. I remember when I used to drop my sounds, and people would pay people to copy my sounds because my price was too high at the time. I was super upset in the beginning. Then I said to myself, well, the blessed part is: I’m not the one copying. I’m the person leading. It showed me to stay a step ahead, keep trying new things, and keep leading the charge, and know that people are gonna follow — but one thing people are gonna always come back to is the quality.

Rema: Facts. The quality. And when the game names you something? Like when I named myself the future, that was just an unconscious responsibility. But when the game, by itself, calls you “the prince of Afrobeats,” or you’re this or you’re that, it’s like the universe has picked you, you know? The culture cannot deny that I’ve opened doors. Even though I’m just four years in.

Swizz: Now, what would you say to the little kid back at home trying to get where you’re at?

Rema: Just tell yourself the truth. Do you wanna copy, or do you wanna create? Do you want it the easy way, or do you want it the hard way? Because a lot of people feel like, once they bloom, it’s up. But that’s where the work really starts. Some people like it for the flashiness, [or] to get the girls, the jewelry, the cars.

Swizz: The materialistic things.

Rema: They want to take pictures every day. They want to show off and all of that. To this day, no one knows if I even have a house.

Swizz: You don’t even know if you have a house! You haven’t been home in four years!

Rema: [Laughs.] I never made that my priority. My name is in the news every day, but it’s not because “Rema got a girlfriend,” or “Rema bought this,” or “Rema did that.” Even the chain — nobody knows the [price] of the chain. I just talk about the value of the album.

Earlier this year, the Selena Gomez-assisted version of Rema’s single “Calm Down” became the first song led by an African artist to stream more than 1 billion times on Spotify, but that almost seems beside the larger point of how thoroughly Rema has penetrated the culture at home and abroad. Swizz has some big numbers on his side, too; two years ago, ASCAP estimated he was responsible for more than 350 million record sales. But again, that barely measures the impact he’s had since he began crafting hits in 1998 as the nephew of the founders of the pioneering rap label Ruff Ryders. An expert controller of chaos, and Alicia Keys’ proud husband of more than a decade, Swizz has made his mark both in and out of hip-hop.

VIDEO HERE