August Alsina gave a heartfelt interview that hit the Internet on Tuesday, where he touched on various topics, including his current level of happiness and taking care of his three nieces after his sister Chandra died from cancer.
Alsina revealed the news that she passed in a Dec. 26 Instagram post, where he shared a tribute video while his song “Other Side” played.
August Alsina. (Photo: YouTube)
In that same post, he also revealed that Chandra’s partner and nieces’ father, Mel, was killed, and his sister had asked him to take care of her girls if she died.
In his newly released interview, Alsina explained what the role of being a guardian is like, but before that he broke down after being asked about his happiness.
“I’m going through my process,” he said, with his voice starting to crack. “I’m going through my journey, and I’m not looking for any sympathy, because I know that God has me even when I feel that God doesn’t. I know there’s certain things you can learn about God through suffering.
“And while I’m suffering, and while I’m watching my nieces suffer who are my kids now, to hear them tell me ‘I want my mother and I want my father’ and them seeing me as a person who can always fix something for them and this is a situation that I can’t fix,” added the singer.
He also said that his nieces have a special name for him.
“They call me Dommy, it’s dad and mommy mixed together, and just the weight of that title alone, ’cause I don’t have kids of my own, it makes me want to be what I know I need to be for them, because I grew up with my father dead and having a strange relationship with my mother so I know what it’s like to go through life without having a person you can run to, without having a certain kind of foundation,” Alsina explained. “So I’m saying all of that to say I am who I am until I get to more of what I’m supposed to be.”
To say that Alsina has had a more than difficult time in the past couple of years would be more than accurate, because besides his sister passing, he also battled liver disease and an opiod addiction.
On Valentine’s Day he released his first project in three years, an EP called “Forever and a Day,” which is an eight-song offering featuring Ty Dolla $ign.
It’s the first project Alsina has released on his own label Shake the World / Human Re Sources, since he split with his former record label Def Jam, whom he once accused of holding his music hostage.
You can see his interview below.
