AUGUST 08

August 08 entered the scene in 2018 with what looked like the profile of an off-center R&B newcomer, yet he already carried substantial behind-the-scenes experience, above all as co-writer of DJ Khaled’s chart-topping pop single “I’m the One.” Linked to 88rising, the same collective behind his gold-certified track “Midsummer Madness,” he approached his own catalog with unfiltered introspection across the EPs Happy Endings with an Asterisk (2019), Emotional Cuh (2020), and the paired Towards the Sun and Towards the Moon (2022). Those two later EPs were later fused into Seasick, his first proper full-length album.

An arranger, producer, and seasoned background singer as well, August 08 developed his skills late yet absorbed them rapidly. Born Ray Davon Jacobs in Los Angeles, he turned to multi-instrumental playing and songwriting after absorbing Dwele’s 2008 version of Bobby Caldwell’s “Open Your Eyes.” His initial contributions appeared under the names August Grant and Ray Jacobs on various projects throughout 2016 and 2017, with “Fashion Week” by Wale and the aforementioned “I’m the One” by DJ Khaled—another U.S. pop number one that also topped charts internationally—standing out as the most widely heard.

In February 2018 he appeared on Rich Brian’s album Amen and simultaneously issued his own first single, “Funeral.” Those recordings, followed quickly by the hit “Midsummer Madness” and the Father EP, cemented his relationship with the management, marketing, label, and artist network 88rising. After Happy Endings with an Asterisk and Emotional Cuh arrived via that imprint, he signed with Def Jam and released the single “Keep Me Around,” then a cover of James Blake’s “Retrograde,” both toward the close of 2021. Throughout the first half of 2022 he issued his debut album in stages, first the seven-track Towards the Sun and months later the six-track Towards the Moon; the two collections were combined as Seasick, which appeared that August.

August 08 died on August 28, 2023, only months after the release of his last single, “Bruises.”