August Alsina’s career almost ended just as it was getting started. After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2017 that explained a host of health issues he was facing, the New Orleans-born singer/songwriter was faced with a decision: He could either change his lifestyle, prioritizing his career over the partying, or not and possibly squander his immense talent. Alsina, born in 1992, opted for the former, and he gave New Orleans its biggest boost in rap visibility since Lil Wayne rapped about the Hollygrove neighborhood on “Mr. Carter.” While it’d be easy to justify taking a step back after such a health scare, Alsina has used his brush with death as a motivator. Picking up on his first two LPs, 2014’s Testimony and 2015’s This Thing Called Life, 2020’s The Product III: stateofEMERGEncy reintroduced the singer as a powerful lyricist with an angelic voice. His verses are deeply indebted to love and love lost, but the latter album deals more explicitly with his failing health and his subsequent rebirth, like on the standout single, “Today.” Though Alsina feared for his life, his challenging upbringing in New Orleans readied him for most obstacles: “We’re really from the trenches. It’s really a jungle,” he told Apple Music, before adding, “We’re built to survive and endure.”