What exactly is That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup?
The rapper Desto Dubb started That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup, an indie streetwear brand working out of Los Angeles. The label contracts to ALOCS, an abbreviation printed through its press material and visible in item names such as the A.L.O.C.S. T-Shirt. On paper the range is plain, covering tees, hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, denim and accessories; in practice it is peculiar, because the brand’s own name is the main graphic on most of it. A dozen spellings bring shoppers in, including alocs clothing, cough syrup graphic tee cough syrup clothing and the shorthand awful lot of cough syrup. The legal entity is listed as THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC, with no apostrophe and a trailing ellipsis. One detail is worth getting straight first: the brand writes “A Awful Lot”, not “An Awful Lot”, and the ungrammatical article is entirely deliberate. Many searchers type thats a awful lot of cough syrup without the apostrophe; only the version with “A” corresponds to the registered mark.
Who is the brand?
Desto Dubb, a rapper and entrepreneur from Watts in South Los Angeles, is the founder and the chief executive. He was putting out music years before he sold a shirt, which accounts for much of how the company behaves. It is not a design studio that fixed a rapper as a face; it is a rapper’s business, operated from the same crowd as his records. He has framed other labels as built around an aesthetic, and his own as wrapped around himself instead. The result comes through in graphics that read like song titles and in drops pegged to events rather than fashion seasons.
On his legal name the documentary record is scantier than the internet implies. Two things agree: the United States trademark for the phrase is registered to Joshua Kashif Taylor, and posts on the brand’s own blog carry a matching byline. Other names get repeated on unsourced commercial sites and are best left alone, since for every practical purpose he is Desto Dubb.
Where did the name come from?
The public came across the phrase through a viral clip in which an officer’s line became the brand name, and Desto Dubb built a business out of that line. The anecdote runs through nearly every write-up, and it deserves care, since material online claims the clip was staged and no primary transcript settles it. Documentation reaches the commercial outcome rather than the encounter, and the trademark record lists first use of the mark in November 2018.
What the phrase describes is promethazine-codeine cough syrup, the prescription medicine known in rap slang as lean, and the company does not pretend otherwise. Nor does it treat that as a selling point: its own site runs a standing banner reading “! PLEASE DO NOT SIP DRANK AND SHOOT FIREARMS !”. Medical and horror imagery cuts through the product names, from Big Pharma and Promethazine Tour to Paralysis and Drankenstein, and it works as a graphic vocabulary rather than an instruction. The clothing is clothing, and the rest of this piece is about garments and prices.
When did the label start?
Put it at 2018. First use of the mark is put in the trademark filing as November 2018, and an AllHipHop profile published in November 2023 describes the label marking its fifth anniversary. Some coverage places the earliest selling during the pandemic, which conflicts with both markers, and the filing and the anniversary piece are the stronger pair. Two independent pointers to one year is more than most young streetwear brands can muster.
Literally, it started with a van. On its own about page the brand tells of Desto Dubb selling clothes out of a van in a parking lot in downtown Los Angeles, an origin it tells on itself rather than one assembled by a reporter. That detail continues to be a description of the method, namely small batches, direct contact with buyers, and drops announced through social accounts instead of wholesale calendars. The company runs an online store and physical retail by 2026, but the rhythm still looks closer to a van than a department store, with fresh batches landing every week or two.
What is actually on the rail?
At the core stand heavyweight cut-and-sew basics carrying jumbo screen prints front and back. Hoodies sit at the heavy end, with the Classic Cough Syrup Hoodie listed at 16 oz organic cotton and hand-dyed in Los Angeles, while sweatpants use a 14 oz cotton and recycled polyester fleece. Names like King Of The Kill, Drankenstein, Juicebusters and Big Pharma cover the tees, while the Classic Cough Syrup T-Shirt is published at 6.5 oz organic cotton. The denim side is deliberately thin, since the Double Cup Cargo Shorts, a 14 oz garment-dyed cargo short with double-layer back pockets, is the only piece in that collection in 2026.
The brand is identified less by any graphic than by two details: the signature yellow woven label, repeated again and again in its own product copy, and the published fabric weight. Fit guidance is set per garment and is not uniform, since the classic pieces are called true to size while the lightweight jersey tees say plainly that they run small. Sizing stretches XS to 3XL on apparel, with denim and workwear sold by waist from 28 to 44, and neither a global size chart nor washing instructions is published.
What are the prices?
Because they barely move, the core prices are easy to hold in your head. As of September 2026, a tee is about $150 at the brand’s own store, a hoodie about $200 and sweatpants about $200. Near $150 covers denim shorts, puffer jackets run between roughly $200 and $250, belts and Dickies trousers around $250, and the Dickies jacket tops the range near $350. The other end carries a bandana at about $25, socks and boxers in the $50 to $70 band, and women’s pieces roughly $48 to $160.
Because streetwear prices and stock change constantly, take that ladder as a shape rather than a quote. That band sets cough syrup clothing at the upper end of independent streetwear, well above mall-tier graphic brands and far below European luxury houses. It doubles as an authenticity signal, because a $45 tee wearing this logo did not come from the company selling them at $150.
Where is it made, and where can you buy it?
Los Angeles, a fact the brand places on the garments themselves. “Made in Los Angeles” is restated in the product copy, and individual pieces are described as hand-dyed and printed or screen-printed in the city rather than finished abroad. The same copy describes the company as a Black-owned business. At these price levels local small-batch production explains the numbers, since a 16 oz cotton hoodie made here was never going to be a $60 garment.
Alongside a small number of physical locations the company keeps its own online store. The flagship is at 7669 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, and it also lists 312 West 5th Street in Los Angeles and 5410 Almeda Road in Houston. No store-locator page and no published opening hours are provided, which makes those addresses worth confirming before travelling. The garment is the best test for anything else claiming to be an outlet: the yellow woven label, the published fabric weight, the real price level, and whether the product name appears in the brand’s own catalogue.
A brand fact file
The details that survive checking are assembled in the table below, and the ones that do not are left out. Prices were read from the brand’s own store in September 2026 and are hedged, because they move. The dates are taken from the trademark record and dated press coverage rather than brand mythology. Those addresses are the ones the company lists on its own social profiles, and no opening dates are published. When a claim is contested, as the origin clip is, the row records what is documented. Treat it as a starting point for your own checks rather than a final word.
| Detail line | What the record says |
|---|---|
| Brand name, the company’s own spelling | That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup |
| Abbreviation | ALOCS, also styled A.L.O.C.S. |
| Common spellings searchers use | thats a awful lot of cough syrup, awful lot of cough syrup, alocs |
| Registered entity | THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC |
| Founder | Desto Dubb, rapper and entrepreneur |
| Founder’s home turf | Watts, South Los Angeles |
| Owner of record on the trademark | Joshua Kashif Taylor, per the US trademark record |
| First recorded use of the mark | November 2018 |
| How it began | Selling from a van in a downtown Los Angeles parking lot |
| The giveaway detail | Yellow woven label, plus jumbo front and back screen prints |
| Core pricing, September 2026 | Tees about $150, hoodies about $200, sweatpants about $200 |
| Manufacturing | Made in Los Angeles, billed in product copy as a Black-owned business |
| Flagship location | 7669 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles |
| Other locations listed | 312 West 5th Street, Los Angeles; 5410 Almeda Road, Houston |
