August Alsina defines entanglement in new song ‘Entanglements’

Without naming names, August Alsina responds to Jada Pinkett Smith's classification of their past fling through song

Jul 19, 2020

August Alsina performs onstage at Live! Red! Ready! Pre-Show at the 2017 BET Awards at Microsoft Square on June 25, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for BET)

It was only a matter of time.

After actress Jada Pinkett Smith confirmed her “entanglement,” or relationship, with August Alsina, the singer responded in classic fashion: through song.

Saturday night, Alsina dropped a brand new single on his YouTube page entitled “Entanglements,” a reference to the word Pinkett Smith used to describe her lengthy encounter with Alsina to husband Will Smith on the latest “Red Table Talk.”

Alsina first revealed his relationship with the actress during a video interview with radio host Angela Yee, compelling the Smiths to speak publicly about the situation.

While no names are said in the new song, there are some very clear lyrical references made about Pinkett Smith.

The fast-paced head-nodder opens with the song’s hook and lines like “The definition of entanglement/It’s when you’re tangled in these sheets/Girl, I know we don’t call it a relationship/but you’re still f***in’ with me,” seems to refer to Pinkett Smith actual use of the term “entanglement” when describing her fling with Alsina.

In his first verse, Alsina sings a line, “You left your man to f*** with me, just to pay him back/Don’t you know that’s cold-hearted?” That line speaks about the fact that the Smiths revealed that they were separated at the time Alsina, who had already been friends with the couple, and Pinkett Smith’s relationship developed.

Pinkett Smith told her husband on “Red Table Talk” that “I hadn’t felt good in a long time,” when he asked what she was looking for when she took things with Alsina to another level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2y60-ekHSc

Several lines in the song deal with the age difference between the two. “Girl you be f***in’ with a youngin’, I be doin; s*** you like.” There’s a 21 year age gap between Alsina and Pinkett Smith.

The track also features a verse from Rick Ross and the seven-time Grammy-nominated MC also put in some thinly veiled references to the Smiths. In one of his lines, he rhymed” “Shorty leanin’ on my shoulder, questioning her will power/Jaded by her beauty but her reputation real solid.”

The Miami rapper continued with lines like “Caught up in the Matrix,” referring to Pinkett Smith’s appearance in the Matrix sequels.

Also, “Keys to over 40 cars, left me with a broken heart/Still a gotta get around, favorite artist is 2Pac,” Ross speaking of Pinkett Smith’s well-documented friendship with late rapper superstar Tupac Shakur.

This song comes right off the heels of an interview Alsina did with Vulture that published Friday. While he said he hadn’t seen the “Red Table Talk” episode at that time, he confessed he agreed with Pinkett Smith’s assessment of their affair.

“I would agree [with Jada]. If you look up the definition of ‘entanglement,’ it is a complex and difficult relationship. It was exactly that,” Alsina stated. “It definitely was something complicated, a complicated dynamic.”