Alte = a *very* specific countercultural movement. The sounds & their variants? They’ve been here from time. It’s much better to ask questions than be presumptuous & assume it hadn’t been done, till you broached it.

Accra’s alt (music) scene has seen people come & go. If you can’t reference Cruk’d Str8 (where I first came across the brilliance that is @amaarae), Ria Boss, EWVDZI, Skillions New Generation (which gave us @NanaBenyinnn & @1RealJoeyB) then the seats, be like you for take a few.

This conversation, if there’s one being had, is not about who gets to claim being a pioneer or not. That’s a far less interesting conversation for me. It’s rather about the people who’ve put in the work, by being themselves and indirectly growing the scene by inspiring others.

I have copies of songs & bodies of work made by @_riaboss_ & a host of others that date as far back as 2009. It’s the very reason that the work @stingg_, @HarmattanRain @swayekidd @culartblog (among others) is so so important. It’s such essential work to keep such erasure at bay.

I remember hearing JMJ’s ( @JulsOnIt, @_riaboss_ & EWVDZI) ‘Let the Record Rotate’ and that being one of the moments I decided to stick to my guns (and what I imagined my sound would be). That moment is at least a decade old.

I’d really love to see an Accra (alt) scene that finds its own identity independent of what’s happening in Nigeria. Sure, it’s inspiring and we can def take some cues, not in the sound or creativity, but in how the movement has staked its claim and made an imprint.

Last, for non-creators: a thing doesn’t begin existing the moment *you* decide to pay attention to it. Online discourse can sometimes be ahistorical, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t people who put in the work before the movements, scenes, spaces and/or ideas become hypervisible.