“Shake the World” by August Alsina

On 27 March 2022 Will Smith, an established Hollywood A+ lister, slapped Chris Rock, a comedian lower on the totem pole but still akin to a household name nonetheless. This occurred during the Academy Awards, in front of an audience of thousands of attendees, some 15 million Americans watching the show from home. Furthermore, the show was also being aired to approximately 200 countries, with many of such airings being live showings.

Of course, it is totally uncommon for one celebrity to physically assault another at a major awards’ ceremony. So in this society we live in, “the slap heard around the world”, as the incident has been dubbed, proved to be a bigger headline than even more pressing matters for the first few days after it occurred. 

So all things considered, it was inevitable that someone(s) would try to capitalize on the situation. For instance, Chris Rock’s brothers, whom most of us never heard of beforehand, have now garnered coverage from some of the biggest media institutions in the world by chiming in on the matter.

Reason for the Slap

Now the reason Will slapped Chris is because Rock, being who he is, made an unscripted joke about the physical appearance of Jada Pinkett-Smith, Will’s wife, who was also in attendance, front and center. The joke itself wasn’t anything ultra-extreme. But by reacting in such a manner, Big Willy re-opened public wounds in his marriage, most notably Jada’s past affair with August Alsina.

August Alsina

As for Alsina, his music hasn’t been selling well as of late. So in more recent times, his claim to fame has actually been the aforementioned affair. For instance in 2020, he dropped a track entitled “Entanglements” which was based on that illicit relationship. That song also didn’t perform too well. However, it did do noticeably better than his other recent outings. 

So the point being made is that August has already displayed a propensity towards capitalizing on tabloid fodder. Simply put, he is using his adulterous dealings with Jada as a means of generating income.

“Shake the World”

So with all of that in mind, perhaps we can say that it was only a matter of time – now that Will and Jada’s troubled marriage is once again trending – before Alsina attempted to recapitalize on the situation. And the way he most notably does so in this song is, when Jada first revealed to the world that she and August did do the do, she did so by using the euphemism of the two of them having had an “entanglement”. 

That is why Alsina named that previous track “Entanglements”. And in “Shake the World”, he rather uses the word “tangled” to allude to something really interesting. He uses this word to allude to, reading in between the lines, Will’s anger and sensitivity in defending his wife actually being founded in what she and August went through a couple of years ago. 

Furthermore, he makes it clear, in that sneaky sort of way, that he is indeed referring to Pinkett. Why? How? Simply because he also uses the word “matrix” to allude to the complexity of the matter. And of course, Jada Pinkett-Smith has had a prominent, recurring role in the uber-popular Matrix film series.

That said, this piece isn’t solely centered on the vocalist bragging about how someone else’s “b**ch” is attracted to him. Instead, as inferred by such boasting and the track’s title, this song is braggadocious in nature. 

Thesis of “Shake the World”

Thesis wise, August uses the opportunity to celebrate his own hotness. He even goes as far as to imply, as more musicians seem to be doing these days, that he was chosen by God – or “cut from Jesus’ cloth”, as he puts it – to be a star. August views himself as being both “flawed” and “flawless”. Furthermore, he also acknowledges “snakes and enemies” that are “hiding” in his path. Also he expresses a deadly, intergenerational level of disdain for such individuals.

Takeaway

So all lyrics considered, we can conclude by saying that this song features a vocalist who thinks very highly of himself. Such is, once again, a more or less common disposition amongst popular musicians, especially those of a hip-hop leaning. 

But in this case August even seems convinced that he possesses magical powers, or something like that. And by the looks of things said hubris, if you will, is buttressed by the singer’s belief that even though a conscientious effort was made to cancel him, in the aftermath of the Jada Pinkett affair, he survived in the game nonetheless. 

It seems that further adding to Alsina’s ego is the fact that, despite not really being that well-known in and of himself, he still managed to get “tangled up with the world’s favorite”, i.e. finding himself in a sticky, well-publicized situation with a globally-recognized superstar in Will Smith.

When was “Shake the World” released?

“Shake the World”, which was written exclusively by August, was released on 4 April 2022. This marked August’s first release of the year. Since “Entanglements”, a mid-2020 collaboration with Rick Ross, August has only dropped one other single, that being 2021’s “Pretty”.

August

August Alsina is a singer from New Orleans whose discography officially commenced in 2011. As implied earlier, he did experience notable success during the early goings. For example, his debut album, 2014’s “Testimony”, reached second place on the Billboard 200. The album also achieved RIAA-platinum status.