What is alté, you ask? Well, let’s start by saying this – it’s probably easier to describe it in terms of what it isn’t than what it is. In the years since the West African subcultural movement has come to global prominence – say, over the past five years or so – it’s often been erroneously tagged as a music genre, pioneered by the likes of Cruel Santino, Odunsi The Engine, Lady Donli and Grammy Award winner Tems. The thing is, though, there are as many interpretations of the alté sound as there are artists associated with it, with the influences you’ll pick up on in tracks by any of the above spanning R&B, hip-hop, synthpop, house… and then some. Indeed, alté is so much more than a sound – it’s a fully-fledged lifestyle, a way of being that’s expressed as much through style and art as through music, and that has come to define what Nigerian – and by extension African – youth culture looks, sounds and feels like today. 

While trying to pin down a precise definition of what alté is can prove tricky, a clue to what it’s all about lies in the name: it’s a cropped Nigerian Pidgin riff on ‘alternative’. Its roots can be traced back to Lagos in the late 00s, where a generation who’d grown up on old Nollywood films, dial-up internet access and Y2K-era pop and R&B music videos. This eclectic diet of global cultural influences inspired the then-teenage members of groups like L.O.S and DRB LasGidi to pioneer a sound that felt distinct from Afrobeats, the genre that dominated – and continues to dominate – the mainstream at the time. It wasn’t just about the music, though, the way these artists dressed, blending esoteric references gleaned from the media they were consuming with an outré – distinctly Nigerian – dress sensibility immediately positioned them as a countercultural force to be reckoned with.

The mid-2010s saw alté coalesce into a distinct subcultural movement, pioneered by the names mentioned earlier, as well as fashion and art heavyweights like designer Mowalola, photographer Stephen Tayo and stylist Daniel Obasi. In Lagos’ streets, its growing number of acolytes were instantly recognisable for their contextually provocative looks: in a country known for its conservative social conventions, tennis ball-hued buzzcuts and street & skatewear heavy fits, waspy sunglasses and micro-mini skirts all counted as middle fingers to the status quo.

Looking at Nigeria’s pop cultural status quo today, though, you’ll notice that the looks, sounds and people once considered concertedly against the grain have been picked up by the country’s mainstream ambassadors, like Wizkid, Burna Boy and Rema. And increasingly, alté artists are ascending to global stages. In this episode, Mahoro Seward, i-D’s Senior Fashion Features Editor, speaks to Odunsi the Engine, a music producer who’s been at the forefront of the alté scene since its earliest days. Ashley Okoli, a stylist and creative director who’s collaborated with the likes of Mowalola and Victoria’s Secret, unpacks the central importance of fashion in the alté lifestyle, while Teezee, a musician, record label head and founder of rhizomatic cultural platform Native, discusses the ethos at alté’s heart and how it’s going global.