With both his father and stepfather battling crack cocaine addiction, Alsina’s mother moved him to Houston, Texas in search of a fresh start after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Then, Alsina’s father died. Alsina had disagreements with his mother at some point and was “kicked out.” After his older brother, Melvin La’Branch III, was shot and killed on August 31, 2010, he became more committed to his music, and relocated to Atlanta in 2011.

Alsina was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He attended middle school in New Orleans. Although no one in his family was musically inclined, he was inspired to sing by Lauryn Hill in Sister Act 2. Alsina first uploaded videos to YouTube in 2007 at age 14, starting with a cover of “Hypothetically” by Lyfe Jennings.

His first mixtape The Product was released in April 2012, though an “Untitled” mixtape with six acoustic covers premiered in October 2011. His single “I Luv This Shit” featuring Trinidad James was released in January 2013, and his mixtape The Product 2 followed in May 2013.

The EP Downtown: Life Under the Gun was released on August 20, 2013, with a video for “Hell on Earth” released the following month. On December 9, 2013, the third single from his EP Downtown: Life Under the Gun, “Ghetto” featuring Rich Homie Quan, was serviced to urban contemporary radio and it was the most added song on urban radio the week ending December 12, 2013. On January 14, 2014, Alsina released “Make It Home” featuring Jeezy, as the lead single from his debut studio album. Along with the release, it was revealed that the album would be titled Testimony, which was released on April 15, 2014. He was named part of the 2014 XXL freshmen class.

On December 11, 2015, Alsina released his second studio album, This Thing Called Life. It debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 41,000 copies in the United States. The album was supported by five singles; “Hip Hop”, “Why I Do It” (featuring Lil Wayne), “Song Cry”, “Been Around the World” (featuring Chris Brown) and “Dreamer”.

Alsina had been working on his third studio album since 2017. On January 6, 2017, Alsina released the singles “Drugs”. Then on June 1, 2017, “Lonely”, and on June 6, 2017, “Don’t Matter” was released for the album. The album, The Product III: State of Emergency was eventually released on June 26, 2020.

In 2017, the singer revealed that he suffers from a severe autoimmune disease that attacks his liver. This illness has led to multiple incidents including a collapse on stage in 2014.

On July 8, 2019, Alsina updated fans on his recent health scare. In a video he posted to Instagram, the singer explained that he was hospitalized after suffering a loss of mobility. “We’re doing a bunch of tests and they’re saying I have some nerve damage going on throughout my body”.

On June 30, 2020, Alsina claimed he was granted permission from Will Smith to be in a romantic relationship with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. The following day, a representative for Pinkett Smith released a statement concerning the claims, referring to them as “absolutely not true.” However, on July 10, in an episode of her talk show Red Table Talk, alongside Will Smith, Jada revealed that she did have a romantic relationship with Alsina four and a half years prior, when she and Will were separated. She stated she “got into a different kind of entanglement with August.” Jada and Will denied that Will gave Alsina permission for the relationship, with Jada saying Alsina “would perceive it as permission because we [her and Will] were separated amicably”. Pinkett Smith further claimed she wanted to “heal” Alsina, but needed to find healing for herself first. She and Will eventually reconciled after breaking things off with Alsina and claimed she has not spoken to him since.

After Jada’s use of the word “entanglement” went viral on the Internet, Alsina released a collaboration titled “Entanglements” with rapper Rick Ross on July 19, 2020, in which Alsina sings “You left your man just to f— with me and break his heart”.