August Alsina Explains Why He Broke Silence on Jada Pinkett Smith Affair

"I never really cared about what people thought of me, but my personal life started to seep into my business life," he told the magazine. "There were certain falsities about me, and it affected my business relationships. I could understand why it would look like I'm reckless or disrespectful so it really started to affect my livelihood, and I'm never okay with that. I got three kids to look after. Kill me, hate me, stone me, but bury me an honest man. All I can do is tell the truth."

Alsina and Pinkett Smith met in 2015 at a show by her children, Jaden and Willow, in London and became friendly a year after the singer developed a painkiller addiction after falling off a stage during a show. Pinkett Smith said during a 2018 Red Table Talk that he asked her for help with his addiction to the painkiller Percocet.

Their friendship then became romantic and after their breakup Alsina kept things quiet until he told radio host Angela Yee in June that he "truly and really, really deeply loved" Pinkett Smith. "I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life," Alsina told Yee. "I devoted myself to it, I gave my full self to it — so much so to the point that I can die right now and be okay with knowing that I truly gave myself to somebody." That comment led the Smiths to discuss the secret on a subsequent Red Table Talk, which quickly went viral.

Alsina released the single "Entanglements" in July, and even though it drew some blowback, he tells the mag he can handle it and, besides, he never wanted to cause trouble for the Smiths, who he has "deep respect" for. But also, no regrets. "I'm always going to be in the driver's seat of my life and control my narrative," he said. "I can't let anybody else do that for me... It was cool when people were able to use it as a mockery of me, like, 'Oh, you're an entanglement,. When I flipped it, it became a problem for people. Like, 'Oh, you're clout-chasing.' I'm just doing business. It's not personal."

The entire affair has created way more drama than Alsina would have preferred, leading to the collab with Rick Ross on "Entanglements" and a chat about it on Lil Wayne's Young Money Radio show, but Alsina said it's all good now. "It's just a part of life, and it's a part of the journey," he told People. "There's a lot of love there. Sometimes truth is complicated and difficult. But [my relationship with them isn't] broken at all."