August Alsina Lets The ‘Song Cry’
Leaks are as unfortunate as they are an inevitable risk of life in music, but August Alsina got more than emotional about ‘This Thing Called Life’, hitting out at his label Def Jam for his album leak, which came within a matter of days of Jeremih getting similarly irate about the handling of his physical album release.
Regardless ‘This Thing Called Life’ might have arrived a day early, but needs more than a day to take in the immense growth of the artist. August Alsina makes a departure and moves to a solitary state of mind with an album that reflectively takes a deeper look into this life we’re living – no one said it’s gonna be easy but Alsina knows this better than most. For now the New Orleans native has let the mistake slide and kept it moving bringing it back to the music with a new video for the standout track ‘Song Cry’ (watch above). A deep and desperate emotional cry which turns to realising ‘This moment mine for the taking, For all them nights I thought of suicide, contemplating’.
Inspired by his late brother to leave behind the street life and take up music as a full time hustle, music isn’t something August takes lightly. Dropping his DJ Scream hosted debut mixtape, ‘The Product’, back in 2012, August Alsina dedicated it in honor of his late brother, who was gunned down in New Orleans in 2010. The-Dream’s co-sign at Def Jam while A&R, led to Alsina’s move into the big leagues landing him his major deal and debut album, ‘Testimony’.
August’s sophomore ‘This Thing Called Life’ is a solid solo affair, with features only when it makes sense with Anthony Hamilton and Jadakiss working hard on ‘Job’ and the previously released cuts ‘Been Around The World’ ft Chris Brown and ‘Why I Do It’ ft Lil Wayne. With revisions of the 90’s seeping through classic cuts from Lisa Stansfield and Aaliyah into ‘First Time’, August reaches into a deeper soul sound.
Whether you ain’t a ‘Dreamer’ or not, August Alsina lives out his dream and into his music on ‘This Thing Called Life’ – ‘So I’ma let the song cry, I’ma let my soul cry through these words’.
