“Entanglements” by August Alsina & Rick Ross

“Entanglements” is a hip-hop track performed by August Alsina in collaboration with Rick Ross. tells the tale of a woman who leaves her partner to have a brief physical relationship with a younger man. Her sole purpose of doing this is to pay her partner back for a wrong he did her. And upon realizing her true intentions of hooking up with him, her younger lover is understandably upset. He can’t seem to understand how she would use him in that manner just to break her partner’s heart.

The Jada Pinkett Smith and August Alsina Affair

The lyrics directly make reference to the famous secret extramarital affair that actress Jada Pinkett Smith had with singer August Alsina.

It should however be noted that no direct mention of said affair is mentioned in the song. Furthermore, neither Jada nor Will Smith’s names are mentioned directly. However, plenty of clear references to them and things concerning their lives are mentioned in this song. For example, in the first verse, as many as three references to the couple are made.

One such reference occurs in the first line when Rick Ross talks about a shawty questioning his “willpower”. He goes on to describe said shawty as one “jaded by her” own beauty. Now, both the words “jaded” and “willpower” are clearly interesting forms of word play with both Jada and Will’s names. In that same verse, Ross categorically namedrops the late rapper 2Pac. Now, everyone who knows Jada Pinkett’s relationship history knows that she once dated 2Pac.

Song’s Title (“Entanglements”)

The things stated above aside, the biggest give away that this song is about Pinkett Smith’s secret affair with Alsina is in the title of the song itself. The word “entanglement” refers to being embroiled or caught in something from which freeing oneself is difficult.

Now this word was used by Jada to refer to her affair with Alsina during her famous confession to her husband (Will Smith) about the secret romance. During the confession (which occurred on the web TV show “Red Table Talk” in July of 2020), she categorically told Will that she did have an “entanglement” with August Alsina (who is about 20 years her junior).

According to her, this relationship happened when she was separated from Will. However, she soon broke things off with her young lover (Alsina) and went back to Will. Jada went on to claim that since getting back with Will, she and Alsina haven’t spoken.

“Entanglement” goes Viral

Now, shortly after Jada’s confession, the word “entanglement” instantly went viral. The obvious reason this happened was because it was an interesting choice of word Jada used in describing the secret affair.

And apparently finding this word “interesting” too, Alsina decided to use it as the title of a song about their affair.

Facts about “Entanglements”

Contrary to popular belief, this isn’t Alsina’s first collaboration with Ross. Both artists had worked together on several tracks prior to “Entanglements”.

Alsina wrote “Entanglements” along with his collaborator Rick Ross and at least four other songsmiths/producers.

“Entanglements” can be classified as a diss track directed at Jada.

It was released on the Nineteenth of July, 2020.