Alté

Alte (pronounced AL-tay, short for alternative) is a Lagos-based scene of artists who emerged in the mid-2010s with productions that draw on Afrobeats, R&B, dancehall and indie rock without committing to any of them. Tempos cover the full Afrobeats range (95 to 115 BPM) but the arrangements are sparser: more space in the mix, more unconventional drum programming, more genre-mixing within a single track. Vocals lean toward whispered delivery, light auto-tune and stylized phrasing rather than the full-throated approach of mainstream Afrobeats. Lyrics in English, Pidgin and Yoruba treat alienation, sexuality and Lagos street life with a remove that the radio-pop side avoids.

The scene crystallized around a Lagos collective and the visual-arts crew DRB Lasgidi in the early 2010s, with Cruel Santino (Santi), Odunsi the Engine, Tems, Lady Donli and Tomi Owo as central figures. The 2017 Cruel Santino mixtape Suzie's Funeral and Odunsi's 2018 album rare. are the scene's foundational documents. Tems broke globally in 2020-21 with Essence (Wizkid feat. Tems) and Wait For U (Future feat. Drake & Tems), pulling alte sensibilities into the mainstream Afrobeats conversation. The scene remains visually distinctive — alte fashion, photography and music video direction are recognizable cultural markers.

Listen for how alte productions leave more empty space in the mix than mainstream Afrobeats — kicks and snares are mixed lower, hi-hats sparser, and vocal reverb often longer. The vocal performances are conversational rather than declamatory, and lines often start off-beat. Genre switches within a single track — from log-drum Afrobeats to indie-guitar texture to dancehall riddim — happen without much announcement.

Tems's For Broken Ears (2020) is the cleanest entry. Odunsi the Engine's rare. (2018) is the deeper alte statement.

The alte label was originally a slang shorthand used inside the Lagos arts scene before becoming the genre name; many of the scene's founding figures resist being called alte at all, preferring to be described as simply alternative Nigerian artists.