While promoting his new album, singer August Alsina claimed that he had a close ‘relationship’ with Jada Pinkett Smith, and her husband, Will Smith, allegedly gave his blessing. Here’s what you need to know.
“Contrary to what some people may believe, I’m not a troublemaker, I don’t like drama,” singer August Alsina, 27, said during a June 30 interview with The Breakfast Club’s Angela Yee. During the conversation, August claimed that he was once involved with the still-married Jada Pinket Smith, 48. “I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life, and I truly and really, really, deeply loved and have a ton of love for her (Jada). I devoted myself to it. I gave my full self to it.”
August also claimed that her husband, Will Smith, 51, approved of this alleged close relationship. “I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership … He gave me his blessing.” This interview caused a blow-up on Twitter, with many wondering if what August claimed was actually true. HollywoodLife has reached out to reps for Will and Jada for comment on these claims and will update the post when we hear back. In the meantime, here’s what you need to know about August.
1. August Alsina is a multi-platinum R&B artist. A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, August is best known for a handful of successful singles, including “I Luv This Sh-t” with Trinidad James, “Ghetto” with Rich Homie Quan, “Numb” with B.o.B and Yo Gotti, and his 2014 track, “No Love” with Nicki Minaj. Both “I Luv This Sh-t” and “No Love” have been certified platinum by the RIAA, while the other two have gone Gold.
“I just wanted to give people something to be able to find some positivity in and be uplifted by,” he said in 2015 to XXL, who named him part of their Freshman Class the prior year. “I feel like a lot of people expected me to come back with, I guess, some club shit. But this music is deeper than a “turn up” to me. This is literally the ghetto gospel for the hood. I’m just on some positive shit, man, and I just felt like that record was very needed. This shit ain’t a popularity contest to me. When you hear the album, it’ll all make sense.
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2. There have been rumors about him being linked to Jada for a while. There have been rumors surrounding August and Jada for a while. His 219 track, “Nunya,” continued to fuel speculation. “You got me feeling like it was an act, you’re just an actress/Putting on a show ’cause you don’t want the world to know,” he sings. In the official video, Complex notes that it featured a shot of a text message from “Koren,” which is Jada’s birth-given middle name.
“To Clarity, The Song is not about Jada. It’s simply JUST A SONG, & a free artistic expression of a made-up narrative already put in place by its ORIGINAL format,” August would write on Instagram. “Thank you for all of your love around the music & more is to come, but please know that Me & my BEST (@jadapinkettsmith )are good!!! & We will always be, 4Life!”
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3. He released an album in 2020. August gave this interview with Angela as part of a promotional tour of his 2020 album, The Product III: stateofEMERGEncy, as well as an accompanying five-part docuseries. The 27-track project features appearances from Tink, Yo Gotti, Lil Wayne, Juicy J, and Darrel Walls. This release, per Complex, is a continuation of a mixtape series that he started in 2012 with The Product. He released The Product 2 in 2013. He has two additional studio albums – 2015’s This Thing Called Life and 2014’s Testimony.
4. August has a history of health issues… – August is known for his health struggles. In 2019, he alarmed fans while sharing a video of himself in a hospital bed after he missed his performance at the 2019 Essence Festival. “Hi guys, it’s August,” he began in the clip, via PEOPLE. “As you can probably tell, I’m in the hospital. So, here’s the stitch: I woke up one day and wasn’t able to walk,” he said. “I couldn’t feel my legs, and my doctor ended up admitting me into the hospital.” In 2017, he revealed that he suffers from an autoimmune disease that attacks his liver in a sit-down interview with – surprise! – Jada Pinkett Smith.
5. …and was once in a coma. August collapsed on stage during a Sept. 2014 performance in New York. The incident resulted in him being in a three-day coma. “Having life taken away from you for a little while forces you to be more open-minded and to go live,” he said on a during a Nov. 2014 appearance on The Breakfast Club, per MTV. “It was a case of me putting other people before myself; putting any and everything before myself. Just overworking myself, man, and exhaustion.”
August said he didn’t remember passing out. “I had over 10 seizures,” he said. “I never had that problem before. Never that type of medical history in my family or anything of that sort.”
Sourse: hollywoodlife.com
