Last updated: October 9, 2026.
Rema was a teenager posting freestyles from Benin City when a record label flew him to Lagos. Within four years he had the biggest Afrobeats song ever released. The Rema family story behind that rise is a short and hard one: a father and an older brother lost early, and a mother who raised him.
Quick Facts
| Birth name | Divine Joshua Ikubor |
| Born | May 1, 2000, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria |
| Family origin | Igbanke, Edo State |
| Father | Justice Ikubor (deceased) |
| Mother | Name not made public |
| Label | Jonzing World and Mavin Records |
Who Are Rema’s Parents?
Rema’s father was Justice Ikubor, a local figure in the Peoples Democratic Party in Edo State. His mother has stayed out of public view, and her name has not been published in reliable reporting.
Rema was born in Benin City on May 1, 2000. His family comes from Igbanke, in the Orhionmwon area of the state. His father was Igbo and his mother is Edo.
What Happened to Rema’s Father and Brother?
Rema lost his father and his older brother while he was still young. He has referred to both deaths in his music and in interviews.
In September 2020 he went further. In a series of posts, he demanded answers from his father’s political party about how Justice Ikubor died. Nigerian newspapers including The Nation and the Daily Post reported the posts at the time. No public finding has settled the question, so we report only that he raised it.
The losses left his mother to bring up the family. Rema has said she is the central person in his life.
Does Rema Have Siblings?
Rema had an older brother, who died. Other details about his siblings have not been confirmed in reliable sources, and he has kept his family away from publicity.
Childhood and Early Life
Rema grew up in a Christian household in Benin City. He found music at Ighile Group of Schools, where he began to sing and rap, as he told Rolling Stone in 2020.
Church was his first stage. He performed there as a teenager with his friend and collaborator Alpha P.
He was admitted to the University of Lagos in 2022. He left the following year, after a long lecturers’ strike shut the campus.
How Did Family Shape His Career?
With his father and brother gone, Rema has described feeling responsible for his family from an early age. Music became the way to provide.
The break came from a phone video. He posted a freestyle over the song Gucci Gang by the Nigerian artist D’Prince. D’Prince saw it, flew him to Lagos, and signed him to Jonzing World, a label linked to Don Jazzy’s Mavin Records, in 2019.
His first EP went to the top of Apple Music’s chart in Nigeria. His debut album, Rave & Roses, followed in March 2022.
One song from it changed everything. Calm Down, remixed with Selena Gomez, reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100. It led Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a record 58 weeks and passed one billion streams on Spotify in 2023.
His second album, Heis, came out in July 2024. It earned him his first Grammy nomination, for Best Global Music Album.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Rema’s real name? Divine Joshua Ikubor.
Who is Rema’s father? Justice Ikubor, a local politician in Edo State, who died when Rema was a child.
Who raised Rema? His mother, after the deaths of his father and older brother.
Where is Rema from? He was born in Benin City, Nigeria. His family is from Igbanke in Edo State.
How was Rema discovered? D’Prince signed him in 2019 after seeing a freestyle he posted online.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Rema, citing Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Billboard, Vanguard, The Nation and the Daily Post
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