August Alsina Wants to Spread Positivity on His New Album

For a few months, it seemed that August Alsina had all but disappeared. The Def Jam singer and 2014 XXL Freshman was in the midst of a breakout year, releasing his debut album, Testimony, in April 2014, heading out on tours with Usher, 2 Chainz and Chris Brown as well as his own headlining stint and taking home two BET Awards—for Best New Artist and Coca-Cola Viewer’s Choice—at the 2014 ceremony. With Testimony landing at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and his tour dates selling out across the country, August was quickly assuming a role as one of the brightest young voices bridging the gap between hip-hop and R&B and doing it in a hurry.

But that momentum came to a scary, eye-opening halt almost exactly a year ago, when August collapsed on stage during a performance in New York City and wound up in a coma for three days, canceling a slew of performances and bringing his insane workload back down to earth. Musically, he stayed largely quiet through the beginning of 2015 before re-emerging with the first single from his upcoming sophomore album, This Thing Called Life, called “Hip-Hop” in April. The song is an ode to both the genre as well as to the need for better days and the song’s video, shot in his New Orleans hometown, underlines the point. August Alsina isn’t making music for the club; instead, he wants to use his position and his talents for positivity and awareness.