August Alsina
- R&B singer August Alsina spent the first several years of his life in New Orleans, Louisiana, but his mother moved his family to Houston, Texas to gain distance from the troubled lives led by his crack-addicted father and stepfather. In 2007, as a young teenager, Alsina uploaded covers of songs by Musiq Soulchild and Lyfe Jennings, which racked up thousands of views on YouTube. His home situation deteriorated, and he moved back to New Orleans, where he turned to dealing drugs. The shooting death of his brother was a wake-up call; motivated to develop his talent as a singer, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia and recorded a 2012 mixtape The Product, which featured Lloyd on the track “Sucka.” Early the following year, Alsina released “I Luv This Shit” as the first single from his second mixtape, The Product 2. He then released an EP, Downtown: Life Under the Gun, in August 2013.
