Every music industry in the world has a particular sound that the industry considers as mainstream. Some parts of America have country music as their mainstream sound and some parts of Europe have the Latino sound as their mainstream sound. In Nigeria, our mainstream sound is Pop. Our Pop is Afrobeats. Like every other industry, we have other genres and sounds like hip-hop, trap, funk, EDM and dance music in the space, and they all have their moments and highlights. One of the biggest communities of these genres in recent times is the Alte community.
The Alte community is a group of artists and creatives that aspire to be different. Alte is a short form of alternative. As the name implies, the creatives here make alternative art. Art that’s different from what appeals to the general population. Examples of these creatives are the Santis, the Odunsis, the Lady Donlis and the Bojs. Everything about their art is different and feels new, fresh and constantly evolving.
The Alte community saw a large spike in growth in the 2017 to 2020 period when acts like Santi, Odunsi, Jilex Anderson, Nonso Amadi and Tems started finding motion on the streaming platform SoundCloud. They were able to find other creators like them and build a community off their art that found it’s way into the mainstream market. They were seen as the future of the genre, and they flexed their creative capacities to showcase why they were being sought after.
Their rise to mainstream appeal and global escalation was however cut short due to a number of factors and today we have the community constantly fighting the mainstream and looking for a second chance as a collective positioned to take over the mainstream.
Alte had everything to succeed. They had the attention of the country and the backing of the industry. They were able to get the attention and the backing of international media during their peak period. Santi was featured on Fader, WavyTheCreator was on Highsnobiety, and Odunsi managed to score a collaboration with Davido.
When Afrobeats to the world kicked off properly, some of these artists got signed to international labels. Alte artists got international deals just after the big 3, and before the rest of the mainstream pop acts. This was because they were seen as the future, and everybody wanted to buy into the future. Some were announced, others were not in order to sell the illusion of the “independent artist.”
Their deals got them to all release music, and the music failed to scale. They failed to execute on the mainstream and global level, and they suffered for it. Operating on a bigger level meant more eyes were on them, and the generation after them paid attention to why they got attention in the first place. Sooner than later, these new movements came forward, took the valuable elements of their game, created art that would connect more and pushed the bigger culture forward.
Alte became pop, but the music was left behind. The sound then transformed to a movement, and Alte became more than just a genre of music. It became a lifestyle. It became the new cool. Everyone wanted to be Alte, and the youths started to dress like them. Baggy pants and oversized shirts became the norm. Boundaries were pushed, and the mainstream acts adopted the elements that made Alte stand out.
It wasn’t just the style and look of Alte that was borrowed at this point. The sound was tweaked to fit the mainstream. The tempo of Afrobeats slowed down. The melodies and pockets were copied. Everything about Alte was stolen, and rightfully so. After all, art is meant for the public to consume, glorify and imitate. We started to see the Remas and the Victonys, the Omah lays and the Oxlades. Artists that found the perfect balance between Alte and pop, and rode the industry with it.
Now, the Alte artists are crying. They’re calling the mainstream frauds. They’re saying they were robbed without credit. They claim to have birthed the future and made to not have a part in it. Like a mother who had her child stolen from her at childbirth, after laboring for nine months. They’re also lying. Lying that there would be no future without them, and they are the backbone of the genre currently.
It’s okay to point to your influence and say, we influenced X, Y, Z, Wizkid and Rema. It’s undeniable. They know it. The fans know it. The music execs know it. Sadly, there’s no plaques for influence, only flowers. Flowers almost have to be given to you too, and it seems the hijackers aren’t willing to. Everyone’s ready to say how original they are and how they had these ideas from primary school. Also, many other movements have also scaled and influenced pop culture. They did this while getting success in real-time, and mass adoption and relatability with the general population.
There’s a side of Alte music that managed to cross over and find some form of connectivity with the mainstream. Alte music with a lower barrier of consumer entry because the creators like Blackmagic, Boj, Vector, Ajebutter 22 domesticated the sound with language, style, collaborations and more. The other side of Alte had a higher entry barrier because the creators leaned towards more foreign obscure element that the average consumer couldn’t relate with no matter the level of coolness and exclusivity it came with. The anime influences, foreign melodies and pockets, abstract art, creative edginess, etc.
When this was communicated by the consumers and culture aficionados, they were largely met by elitist feedbacks from the fans of the genre and sometimes the creatives. We heard the “the music is not for you”, “you’re not well traveled to appreciate it”, “those who get it get it”, and more. While such feedback might have been true at the time, they were also dismissive and condescending. And the fans listened.
Alte became adjacent culture that’s not for mass consumption. They also retained their identity through aesthetics that became symbolic of the movement and provided exclusivity. The fans saw these elements in the new pop acts like Victony, Rema, Omah Lay and Buju who were also providing them with mainstream music, and rode with them instead.
Everyone bit off Alte. Wizkid uses alternative songwriters till today. Davido has worked with a lot of them and it has helped in brushing up his sound. Rema bit a lot off the Alte movement and incorporated it into his style and sound. Same as Omah Lay, Buju, Victony, Magixx and everyone else. This is okay and should become common knowledge. But to ask for more than this is treacherous and greedy, because that is all you offered the mainstream. As a genre, you gatekept yourself. As a community, you shared. What is shared will be received and taken.
Contrary to what is popularly believed, Alte music did not start with Santi, Boj, Ajebutter and Odunsi. We had acts like Asa, Nneka, Etcetera, Weird MC, Beautiful Nubia, Brymo, Rufftop MC, Brymo and Blackmagic making Alte music before it became a wave on social media. Contrary to what is popularly believed, Alte music also upscaled. Some acts like Tems and Amaarae were able to pull it off, even on a global level. Contrary to what is popularly believed, Alte music is going to be here forever, because it always has.
It might take different forms or names, have different expressions, new pioneers and may never go mainstream. It will always be here. It will also always service and influence the mainstream, like hip-hop does. It would continue to provide the mainstream with new acts and ideas too, because every artist reaches the stage where he or she has to decide if he wants to make the music he wants to make or the music that would provide dominance.
Some are lucky, like Tems. They make the music they want to make and it services the other function. They manage to find the pocket where they can be accepted on a large scale. Some are not, and they service a community of about a hundred thousand people staying in Lagos and Abuja. Whatever the case is, there’s no need for alte-cations. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and understand how they service the industry. We’ve reached the point where we can start to say the grace, in fellowship.
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