Not your average R&B singer, August Alsina brings the gritty, raw and uncut trials and tribulations he’s gone through in life into his music. Growing up in New Orleans Alsina struggled with violence, drugs, homelessness and the death of his brother. Still he was able to overcome it all and find success in music. Never forgetting where he came from, Alsina put it all into his EP Downtown: Life Under the Gun, our highlight R&B Alternative album in the Nov/Dec issue of The Source. I caught up with the young crooner before his show in New York City as he discussed it all.
Describe the process in writing Downtown: Life Under the Gun.
When I went into it, I really just wanted to take people on a journey, take you on a ride with me. It’s called Downtown Life Under the Gun so, I’m from downtown and I really just wanted you to be able to visualize being in that exact moment with me when you hear this song. That’s the approach I took, to make you feel like you’re there.
Did you have any issues expressing the tough subject matter in your songs?
Of course. I had issues with how much of the truth do I tell you, how much of my life do I give you. But you know what, at the end of the day it’s like if I don’t tell it all, I’m doing myself a disservice and I’m doing other people a disservice. Of course it’s hard to talk about losing my brother, it’s almost like a sense of therapy. That’s my form of therapy, put it in a song.
What was it like in New Orleans?
It’s something that you just gotta experience for yourself. You know we the murder capital. The thing is New Orleans is a really cool place; we have some really cool people. But you know what it’s just the life we live that makes New Orleans what it is. The way we brought up, it’s very different. It’s get it how you live, it’s a dog eat dog world, it’s a jungle, and if you make it out of New Orleans you a true soldier and I made it out. I’m one of the ones that made it out. My brother didn’t make it out of New Orleans so I gotta hold it down for him. You got to experience it for yourself. It’s not all bad, New Orleans has some talented m*therfuckers. It’s just about us finding our way out of it cause New Orleans we so homebody, it’s all we know. So you got to find your way outside of New Orleans to see that it’s really a big, big world out there.
How did moving to Texas affect you? Did that play into your music as well?
Of course. I remember being so upset with my momma for making us move from New Orleans but I can hear my momma right now, it ain’t sh*t in New Orleans, it ain’t nothing. You know what she was telling the truth. It’s nothing there but death, drugs; you have to find a way out of it to come up. But being in Texas, it definitely played a major part in my music and me being who I am.
Expand on some of your songs, like Hell on Earth
Hell on Earth is exactly what it sounds like. I’m living in hell on earth, dead last when I couldn’t see first but I knew it couldn’t get worse so it only got better, better and it’s getting better and that’s just some real shit. It goes back to growing up in New Orleans and living in hell on earth. Just all the sh*t that goes on around you it’s like can this shit be real? I’m sure it’s not only New Orleans, it’s everywhere in the world, like what the f*ck is going on? So Hell on Earth is pretty straight forward and in your face. It’s what it is.
We have Downtown. Downtown is a really special song for me, because its just honest and it’s to my brother man. I’m just happy I found a way to help my brother live, now everyday it’s not so hard for me because it’s like damn, we just talking about us, it’s like he’s here. Downtown is about how my brother got killed, it’s just a real story and they got Nobody Knows on there.
Nobody Knows is about; nobody really ever knows what somebody is going through, what the next person is going through, no matter what it may look like. F*ck the smile on their face or whatever, you never really know what’s going on so that’s exactly what its about. Just about my life situations, I’ve been blessed to be in a new position in my life, a new place, because I’m in a new place not everybody gets it, not everybody understands. I feel like each and everybody don’t get it. A lot of peoples’ perception is reality, like I see him on TV, he got his video, he got this, he got that, so he’s automatically rich and he’s supposed to take care of me. Like what? The EP gives you an opportunity to get to know me on a whole other level.
Talk about the other lighter records like I Luv This Shit.
I Luv This Shit is a real life anthem. If you love grinding, if you love getting up and just doing what you do everyday that’s it. It got Trinidad James on it; I got the remix with Chris Brown and Trey Songz. I got another record on there with Rich Homie Quan called GHETTO. A lot of girls are like you always like the ratchet girls but really what GHETTO stands for, the acronym is Going Hard Everyday Trying To Overcome. I think that’s every girl, period, that’s every girl. We all out here chasing after one thing, just trying to live and be happy and be successful.
Who are your musical influences?
I just keep it short. I like Lauryn Hill.
What do you feel sets you apart from other R&B artists?
You know what, first of all I hate the word R&B. It’s a stereotype on R&B when they shouldn’t. It shouldn’t be. Who says that R&B is jerry curls and tight ass pants, who said that? I represent singing, that’s what I do, I sing. So rhythm and blues I get it, I f*ck with it, I got respect for the art but not respect for what people have made it to be. Every one of these ni**as is different from each other, that’s exactly what makes me different from the next motherfucker and makes them different from me. We don’t live the same life, you didn’t grow up how I grew up, my momma didn’t raise you, and your momma didn’t raise me. We just have two different lifestyles. You ain’t coming how I’m coming and that’s just that.
– Shaina Auxilly (@Shay_Marie)
