“I feel like God gave me the gift to do what I do, just because it’s so many motherf**kers like me that I can help. And show them anything is possible.” – August Alsina
Testimony, the debut album of rising R&B star August Alsina, is more than a feel good club banger. Instead, it is a musical manifestation of Alsina’s strength to carry the great weight of responsibility deliverance demands.
What is that great weight of responsibility? It’s having the courage to transparently share one’s testimony, with hopes that someone will be inspired by it. Thus in return, being empowered to overcome the obstacles they face in their own lives. This is no easy task for anyone, even Alsina. He mentioned on several occasions his apprehension about overly sharing the details of his life. His primary fear was that by doing so, he would be left vulnerable to harsh judgment by the public.
However, understanding that there were people in similar circumstances who desperately needed to know there was a light at the end of the tunnel, with raw honesty he chose to share his life on his album.
In songs like “Testify,” “Right There” and “Benediction” you find that Alsina’s story is one riddled with tragedy.
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, both his father who died after Hurricane Katrina, and step-father battled with drug addiction. His mother’s choice to stay with his step-father while battling this disease as he has called it, led to friction in their relationship. Which eventually culminated into Alsina getting kicked out of the house.
With no place to go or means to provide for himself, he dropped out of high-school his senior year, and resorted to a life of crime.
It wasn’t until his brother was gunned down in 2010 at the age of 24, that Alsina realized he had to change his life. He painfully recounts this story through tears on an Interlude to “Nobody Knows” on his EP, Downtown: Life Under The Gun. “From that point on man, it’s either this or that. And a nigga can’t choose that route ya heard me, somebody gotta survive.”
But as with every testimony, the story doesn’t end with tragedy. Triumph is always looming on the other side of the ‘but’. What do I mean by this? Well, Alsina dropped out of high-school his senior year, but with the help of a teacher got home-schooled and graduated with his diploma at age 20. Alsina’s brother got gunned down, but at 21 as his brother’s keeper he moved his three nieces to Atlanta and is currently helping to raise them. Lost Alsina resorted to a life of crime, but reformed his life and his new album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Alsina’s willingness to bravely share his testimony should be an example for us all. There is no power in locking away our painful past in our closets of shame. Our testimonies, marred with all our imperfections. Ranging from our pains, our heartbreaks, our mistakes, our tears to our scars, are our most prized possessions. They are living proof that although our lives might have been war zones, we victoriously made it out alive. Somebody needs to hear your testimony about how you made it. Like Alsina, don’t be afraid to share it.
– Written by Loy Alexandra
