The singer rebranded by ditching his signature mask, Teddy bear, and embracing tattoos, smoking, and darker colours. He also changed his sound and aesthetics.

Speaking on the one year anniversary of his sophomore album on Thursday, Rema clarified that his rebranding, including smoking, was just an expression of art and not betrayal of his personality as many presumed.

He explained that the controversial album cover was inspired by Japanese anime series Naruto character, Itachi Uchiha.

Recall that rapper Shallipopi also made similar claims last year when he stated that he doesn’t smoke despite posing with cigarettes in his pictures and videos.

He claimed that he uses cigarettes for aesthetics.