On Tuesday, August Alsina published a video from his recent sit-down with Angela Yee for a very lengthy conversation surrounding his new album The Product III: stateofEMERGEncy, his documentary stateofEMERGEncy: The Rise of August Alsina, his life, love and more.
“I honor myself and I honor my authenticity,” Alsina said in the in-depth interview that took place this past Saturday. “If honoring myself means you hate me, stone me, shoot me, crucify me...whatever...bury me an honest man.”
The part of the interview that stood out to most viewers—and immediately became a trending topic on Twitter—was Alsina speaking about his relationship with Jada Pinkett Smith.
“I don’t have anything bad to say about them, they are beautiful people,” the 27-year-old stated about Pinkett Smith and her husband, Will Smith. “When something starts affecting my life, and not only affecting my life but affecting my wellness, my wellbeing and also starts to block my heart—my heart space is blocked...I don’t really have a choice but to express my truth.
“I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership they’ve spoken on several times and it not involving romanticism,” Alsina recalled. “He gave me his blessing and I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life. I truly, really, really and deeply loved and have a ton of love for her. I devoted myself to it. I gave my full self to it...so much so that I can die right now and be OK knowing that I truly gave myself to somebody and I really loved a person. I experienced that! I know what that feels like and some people never get that in this lifetime.”
He noted that he is aware a lot of people will have a hard time understanding the complexities of their long-rumored romantic relationship, but he got to a point where he knew he had to “speak up” because it was beginning to affect his livelihood and psychological capacity.
Alsina has previously been open about his mental health struggles following the death of his sister, Chandra who died from cancer on Christmas Day in 2018, noting that he went through “months of a total depression.”
He had also opened up about becoming the caregiver for his 3 nieces in a 2019 interview, as the young girls’ father Melvin was shot and killed in 2010.
Naturally, some are now wondering whether Pinkett Smith will directly address this, particularly on her Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk. Alsina appeared in the premiere season of Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk series back in 2018, where he joined her and Adrienne “Gammy” Banfield-Norris to discuss their respective struggles with addiction.
The Smiths have also been dealing with the aftermath of previous clips recently surfacing of YouTuber Shane Dawson sexualizing an advertisement photo of a young Willow Smith.
Pinkett Smith and Jaden Smith publicly responded to the completely disturbing reports and clips, directly letting Dawson know that his actions were completely unacceptable. Shortly after the clips resurfaced (as well as his apology video for his past racist content), YouTube suspended monetization on Dawson’s channel.
The Root has reached out to Jada Pinkett Smith’s and Will Smith’s respective teams for comment in regard to Alsina’s interview and we are awaiting a response.
Updated: Wednesday, 7/1/2020, 2:01 p.m., ET: TMZ has reported that Jada Pinkett Smith denies the claims made by Alsina during his recent interview with Angela Yee. TMZ says Pinkett Smith’s rep immediately denounced his claims, saying they are “absolutely not true!!!”