Since the mid 2010’s, Nigeria’s music scene has seen a steady ascent in the rise of alternative music in the country, with artists like Cruel Santino, Odunsi The Engine, Lady Donli and DRB Lasgidi giving rise to what is known as alte music today. A genre of experimentalism and fusion, with the artists defying what is known as conventional/mainstream afrobeats with their music and aesthetics. Albums like rare, Mandy And The Jungle and Enjoy Your Life paved the way with their detail to production, the artist’s singular vision, the immersive texture of the music as well as the art directions and videos.

After the COVID year, 2020, these artists have only gotten bigger, more experimental, more daring, we’ve seen even more defying and ambitious alte projects, Santi’s Subaru Boys: Final Heaven, Odunsi’s Leather Park, Donli’s Pan African Rockstar, Nativeworld’s Native Sound System, BOJ’s Gbagada Express, Somadina’s Heart Of The Heavenly Undeniable, to name a few, but the spotlight has started to shift from the alte OGs to the newer generation of alternative artists, these younger artists who have taken the original alte templates to newer grounds, pushing the boundaries of unconventional yet sincere music even further.

At the turn of the decade, artists like SOLIS4EVR, Tochi Bedford and Vntageparadise were among the first to signify the new age, with their project genres ranging from indie pop, soundcloud rap/trap, alt rock to more punk inspired, sleaze-esque songs. Stairway To Heaven, After Eternity and Parable Of The Sensei were projects so distinctly refreshing to Nigerian music, even in the alternative scene, that these artists grew their own communities of people who deeply resonated with their songs, with SOLIS becoming an angelic figure through the ethereality of her essence, Tochi would go on to help reimagine production and define the ‘bounce’ with Monster Boys, GMK and Genio Bambino, the sound that has become wholly popularized by Santi and is now a staple of the alte sound,, and Vntageparadise’s music helped him garner a cult following of the punk youth who recognized his music as escapist.

Today, looking back, there’s no definite hierarchy for the new underground scene, we’ve seen the likes of the underground avengers in more recent times like Kam K, Luwa.mp4 and Zaylevelten, with their experimental hybrid rap songs, genre benders like Somadina, Ravington and Ictooicy, Moyoswrld, local champions Wave$tar and Mavo, cool kids Contrast, Sinachi, BuTaSkOcH, Raytheboffin, R33NZO, 6avvy, 808vic, the alt baddies Nolly babes amalgams like DEELA, brazy, SGaWD, Deto Black, blnde, the more avant-garde artists like Maryyx2, Seo and wunderkind 1800Manny, Forevatired alumni, indie5tar, Faruna and sobertapes. The scene even growing past Lagos into other states and the diaspora, we’ve heard music from Sahrai, Rowdy B as well as joint and solo music from both Inci and Begho in Abuja, the talented sibling starpower of Luwa.mp4 and Indii in Ibadan, Bdmnzz and his CC ARCHIVES in Ilorin, Toadstool.ink in Port Harcourt, to the powerhouses outside the country, Santaklara, Julrity, S1orDie, dimbabygirl onoola-sama, OAG, and esoteric group, BBBwithluv.

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The new alternative has become a strong cohesive movement, these young artists are here to stay, dissolving what has become the staleness of Afrobeats into more expressive music, ranging from swag rap to shoegaze, from alt rock to electronic, from soul to psychedelia to even cointing their own genres like afrorage and alt-echo, making spiritual and conscious music, singing in pidgin and patois, making futurist sci-fi adjacent music. An interesting factor in all this is the fact that since there aren’t easily accessible producers of these genres in around, most of the artists have had to learn to produce their music themselves and pride themselves with being in full control of the curation of their sound, this also does not in anyways discredit producers actually associated with the new underground, we’ve come to know names like bube, Topsy, jebowya, darius.wav, 3cb, 9roovy, andi, Vic Reagan, producer group heavn777(deathshouldrest, Emyboi and Georgie N) as staples of the scene, to name a few.

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The movement’s aesthetics are intricately curated, tailored to visually communicate their depth of their personas to go along with the sonic world of their music, every rollout, every music video, every cover, goes hand in hand with the larger story being told in their artistry. The most profound aspect of the new alternative/new underground/new gen artists movement, is the community that these artists have built around themselves individually and collectively, from the reception to snippets and teasers, to the artists themselves being friends and working collaboratively with each other, breaking down stereotypes of classism, elitism and bigotry associated with the scene to a more inclusive and whole environment, to the turn-up at their own shows, as shows they’ve had to put together independently-like everything else they’ve had to do for their careers-have brought together numerous subcultures to party and rage and mosh in communal fellowship, united by the atmosphere and vibe they all share with their connection to the artist and their music.

The years will pass and hopefully we won’t have to look back at these moments with melancholic nostalgia but instead as a timestamp for what we’ll come to know as a new revolution for Nigerian music and the arts as a whole, and if you tune in now, you can say you were there at the beginning.

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