Two years ago, August Alsina went viral for revealing his past relationship with actress Jada Pinkett Smith. She revealed intimate details about their “entanglement” during an episode of “The Red Table Talk.” He was 22 years old at the time and she was separated from her husband, Will Smith. Their scandal hit every media outlet and blog around the world. But now Alsina is ready to shift the conversation to more positive subjects.
The “I Love It” singer is one of eight guests who signed on for VH1’s “The Surreal Life.” The series is returning for the first time in 16 years with additional cast members Dennis Rodman, Tamar Braxton, Kim Coles, and more. For his first stint on reality TV, Alsina expressed he was nervous his past with Jada would follow him on the show.
He told “ET,” “I would say that going into it, that probably was one of the factors for me that I felt like, ‘Hmm do I really want to do this?’ because I didn’t want to go into a situation where people would grab for low-hanging fruit.”
The 30-year-old said, “There was one side of me not wanting to do it, trying to protect myself and then the other side of it was well, it gave me the opportunity to allow people to see and experience me and my authentic energy as opposed to the narrative that had been kind of clouding over my life for quite a while.”
Alsina admitted he has “absolutely zero” relationship with anyone from the Smith family. He also wasn’t shocked by Pinkett Smith calling their relationship an “entanglement” on her Facebook Watch show.
“I can only be responsible for myself,” said Alsina. “I can only be responsible for my own actions and hold myself accountable for what I do, what I say and what I know to be true for myself. To be honest with you, I’m not necessarily surprised by anybody’s actions these days. Everybody has the rig to say, reveal whatever they decided.” He added, “I’m not the police of that.”
In the midst of the drama, Alsina dropped his single, “Entanglement” with rapper Rick Ross. And while recovering from the criticism, life happenings continued to plague the young artist and his family. He was devastated after losing his sister, Chandra, in Dec. 2018. He stepped in to raise her four daughters, who he calls “naughters.”
Alsina was also diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition that occurs when a “person’s own immune system harms their body’s nerves, “according to the CDC. It causes muscle weakness and has rendered him temporarily paralyzed.
“It ate the nerves in my legs, so I ended up not being able to walk, talk,” the vocalist recalls, noting that VH1 requested “clearance” from his doctors to appear on “The Surreal Life.”
“It worked out,” he said optimistically. “It showed me more of my strength as opposed to me focusing on, like, a lot of the places where I thought I was weak from, you know, falling ill like that.”
After Will and Jada’s infamous “Red Table Talk” episode, Alsina became the butt of everyone’s jokes. Many questioned why he developed feelings for a married woman. But some took it to the booth, like rapper Tory Lanez, who addresses their relationship in a viral freestyle video.
He said, “Let me start f—–g on Jada. I ain’t gon’ snitch like August. Look at her face, like Will.”
Fast forward to September 2022, Alsina and Lanez were reportedly involved in a physical altercation. As previously reported, Lanez attempted to dap up the “No Love” artist, who took issue with something he said months ago. Alsina said he “assumed” the Toronto native didn’t like him because he spoke of ill of his “business publicly.” During the subsequent alleged exchange with Lanez, Alsina was knocked out, receiving a bloody lip and bruises on his arms and legs.
Alsina described the alleged altercation in a series of posts on Instagram and Twitter. Meanwhile, the Toronto native has repeatedly denied the incident.
