What is That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup?
That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup, started by the LA rapper Desto Dubb, is an independent streetwear brand rooted in Los Angeles. The label contracts to ALOCS, a contraction carried by the press material and visible in item names such as the A.L.O.C.S. T-Shirt. The range is plain on paper, taking in tees, hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, denim and accessories, and odd in practice, since the brand’s that a whole lot of cough syrup own name is the dominant graphic on most of it. Shoppers search for it under a dozen spelling variants, including alocs clothing, cough syrup clothing and the shorthand awful lot of cough syrup. The filed entity reads THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC, with no apostrophe and a trailing ellipsis. Fix one detail before anything else: the brand writes “A Awful Lot”, not “An Awful Lot”, and that ungrammatical article is no accident. Plenty of searchers type thats a awful lot of cough syrup without the apostrophe; only the version with “A” corresponds to the registered mark.
Who is behind it?
Desto Dubb, a rapper and entrepreneur from Watts in South Los Angeles, is the founder and the chief executive. It is not a design studio that hired a rapper as a face; it is a rapper’s business, steered from the same orbit as his records. He was making records years before he sold a shirt, which goes a long way toward explaining how the company conducts itself. He has said that other labels are built around an aesthetic, and that his own is wrapped around himself instead. The result is visible in graphics that read like song titles and in drops pegged to events rather than fashion seasons.
His legal name is a much thinner paper trail than the internet implies. Joshua Kashif Taylor is the owner of record on the United States trademark for the phrase, and posts on the brand’s own blog carry a matching byline. Other names keep surfacing on unsourced commercial sites and are best left alone, since for every practical purpose he is Desto Dubb.
Where did the name come from?
A viral clip pushed the phrase into circulation, an officer’s line became the brand name, and Desto Dubb made that line into a business. The anecdote runs through nearly every write-up, and it deserves care: material online claims the clip was staged, and no primary transcript settles it. The commercial outcome is what is documented, rather than the encounter itself, and the trademark record lists first use of the mark in November 2018.
The phrase itself denotes promethazine-codeine cough syrup, the prescription medicine known in rap slang as lean, and the company does not pretend otherwise. The product names are loaded with medical and horror imagery, from Big Pharma and Promethazine Tour to Paralysis and Drankenstein, a graphic vocabulary rather than an instruction. It refuses treating that as a selling point, and its own site displays a standing banner reading “! PLEASE DO NOT SIP DRANK AND SHOOT FIREARMS !”. The clothing is clothing, and the remainder of this piece deals with garments and prices.
When did the label start?
2018 is the year to use. 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 puts the earliest selling during the pandemic, which conflicts with both markers, and the filing and the anniversary piece are the stronger pair. Having two independent pointers to a single year is more than most young streetwear brands can produce.
The beginning was literally a van. The brand’s own about page has Desto Dubb selling clothes out of a van in a parking lot in downtown Los Angeles, which is the origin it tells on itself rather than one assembled by a reporter. That detail still defines the method: small batches, direct contact with buyers, and drops announced through social accounts instead of wholesale calendars. By 2026 the company runs an online store and physical retail, yet the rhythm still looks closer to a van than a department store, with fresh batches landing every week or two.
What does the brand actually sell?
The core is heavyweight cut-and-sew basics carrying jumbo screen prints front and back. Tees cycle through names like King Of The Kill, Drankenstein, Juicebusters and Big Pharma, with the Classic Cough Syrup T-Shirt published at 6.5 oz organic cotton. 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. Denim is deliberately thin: 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. Set per garment, fit guidance is not uniform, because the classic pieces are called true to size while the lightweight jersey tees say plainly that they run small. Apparel runs XS to 3XL, denim and workwear sell by waist from 28 to 44, and neither a global size chart nor washing instructions is published.
How much does it cost?
The core prices are easy to hold in your head because they barely move. As of September 2026, a tee is about $150 at the brand’s own store, a hoodie about $200 and sweatpants about $200. Denim shorts sit near $150, puffer jackets between roughly $200 and $250, belts and Dickies trousers around $250, and the Dickies jacket tops the range near $350. At the other end a bandana runs about $25, socks and boxers fall in the $50 to $70 band, and women’s pieces roughly $48 to $160.
Streetwear prices and stock change constantly, so treat that ladder as a shape rather than a quote. The band places 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 does it come from, and where can you buy it?
Los Angeles, and the brand says so on the garments themselves. The product copy repeats “Made in Los Angeles”, with individual pieces described as hand-dyed and printed or screen-printed in the city rather than finished abroad. A Black-owned business is how the same copy describes the company. Local small-batch production explains the numbers at these price levels, because a 16 oz cotton hoodie made here was never going to be a $60 garment.
The company maintains its own online store plus a small number of physical locations. The flagship stands at 7669 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, with 312 West 5th Street in Los Angeles and 5410 Almeda Road in Houston also listed. The company provides no store-locator page and no opening hours, so those addresses are 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 gathered in the table below, and the ones that do not are left out. Dates here depend on the trademark record and dated press coverage rather than brand mythology. Read from the brand’s own store in September 2026, the prices are hedged, because they move. The addresses given are the ones the company lists on its own social profiles, with no published opening dates. 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.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand name, the company’s own spelling | That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup |
| Abbreviated form | ALOCS, also written 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 |
| Who founded it | Desto Dubb, a rapper and entrepreneur |
| Founder’s home ground | Watts, South Los Angeles |
| Who holds the trademark | Joshua Kashif Taylor, according to the US trademark record |
| Date of first use | November 2018 |
| How it began | Trading out of a van in a downtown Los Angeles parking lot |
| The telltale detail | Yellow woven label, plus jumbo front and back screen prints |
| Core pricing, September 2026 | Tees about $150, hoodies about $200, sweatpants about $200 |
| Where it is made | Made in Los Angeles, billed in product copy as a Black-owned business |
| Flagship store | 7669 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles |
| Other listed locations | 312 West 5th Street, Los Angeles; 5410 Almeda Road, Houston |