So what is That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup?
The rapper Desto Dubb launched That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup, a self-owned streetwear label out of Los Angeles. It contracts itself to ALOCS, a contraction carried through its press material and in item names such as the A.L.O.C.S. T-Shirt. On paper the range is conventional, covering tees, hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, denim and accessories; in practice it is odd, because the brand’s own name supplies the main graphic for most of it. Shoppers reach it under a dozen different spellings, including alocs clothing, cough syrup clothing and the shorthand awful lot of cough syrup. Registered as THATS A AWFUL LOT https://awfullottacoughsyrup.com/product-category/hoodie/ OF… LLC, the legal entity carries no apostrophe and a trailing ellipsis. Get one detail straight first: 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” fits the registered mark.
Who runs the label?
Desto Dubb, a rapper and entrepreneur from Watts in South Los Angeles, is the founder and chief exec. This is not a design studio with a rapper attached as a face; it is a rapper’s business, run from the same network as his records. He had been releasing music for years before he sold a shirt, which explains much of how the company behaves. He has cast other labels as built around an aesthetic, and his own as wrapped around himself instead. You notice the result in graphics that read like song titles and in drops keyed to events rather than fashion seasons.
On his legal name the documentary record is scantier than the internet implies. Two things point the same way: 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 circulate on unsourced commercial sites and are best left alone, since for every practical purpose he is Desto Dubb.
How did the name come about?
A viral clip carried the phrase to the public, an officer’s line became the brand name, and Desto Dubb built a business out of that line. The anecdote appears in nearly every write-up, and it deserves care: material online claims the clip was staged, and no primary transcript settles it. Documentation extends to the commercial outcome rather than the encounter, and the trademark record lists first use of the mark in November 2018.
The phrase itself points at promethazine-codeine cough syrup, the prescription medicine known in rap slang as lean, and the company does not pretend otherwise. It refuses treating that as a selling point, and its own site carries a standing banner reading “! PLEASE DO NOT SIP DRANK AND SHOOT FIREARMS !”. The product names trade in medical and horror imagery, from Big Pharma and Promethazine Tour to Paralysis and Drankenstein, a graphic vocabulary rather than an instruction. Clothing is clothing, and what comes next is about garments and prices.
When did the brand begin?
Put it at 2018. Two records line up: the trademark filing gives first use of the mark in November 2018, and an AllHipHop profile published in November 2023 describes the label marking its fifth anniversary. Some coverage dates the earliest selling during the pandemic, which conflicts with both markers, and the filing and the anniversary piece are the stronger pair. Most young streetwear brands cannot produce two independent pointers to one year.
Literally, it started with a van. Desto Dubb selling clothes out of a van in a parking lot in downtown Los Angeles is how the brand’s own about page words it, which makes it an origin the company tells on itself rather than one assembled by a reporter. That detail still captures 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?
At the core are heavyweight cut-and-sew basics carrying jumbo screen prints front and back. Names like King Of The Kill, Drankenstein, Juicebusters and Big Pharma decorate the tees, while the Classic Cough Syrup T-Shirt is published at 6.5 oz organic cotton. The heavy end is hoodies: the Classic Cough Syrup Hoodie is listed at 16 oz organic cotton and hand-dyed in Los Angeles, and sweatpants use a 14 oz cotton and recycled polyester fleece. Denim is held deliberately thin, and 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.
Two details identify the brand better than any graphic: the signature yellow woven label, invoked 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?
The core prices are easy to hold in your head because they barely move. At the brand’s own store, as of September 2026, a tee is about $150, 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, while 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.
Prices and stock in streetwear change constantly, and that ladder is best treated as a shape rather than a quote. Cough syrup clothing falls at the upper end of independent streetwear on that band, well above mall-tier graphic brands and far below European luxury houses. It doubles as an authenticity signal: 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, which the brand declares on the garments themselves. Product copy repeats “Made in Los Angeles”, 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. The numbers make sense at these price levels once you account for local small-batch production, 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 runs its own online store. 7669 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles is the flagship, and the company also lists 312 West 5th Street in Los Angeles and 5410 Almeda Road in Houston. Because there is no store-locator page and no published opening hours, those addresses are worth confirming before travelling. Anything else that presents itself as an outlet is best judged on the garment, meaning the yellow woven label, the published fabric weight, the real price level, and whether the product name appears in the brand’s own catalogue.
Fact file for the brand
Below, the table gathers the details that survive checking and leaves out the ones that do not. The prices were pulled from the brand’s own store in September 2026 and are hedged, since they move. The dates are sourced 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. It works best as a starting point for your own checks rather than a final word.
| Detail line | Detail |
|---|---|
| Brand name, the company’s own spelling | That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup |
| Abbreviation | ALOCS, also styled A.L.O.C.S. |
| Spellings people commonly type | thats a awful lot of cough syrup, awful lot of cough syrup, alocs |
| Entity on the register | THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC |
| Founder and chief executive | Desto Dubb, rapper and businessman |
| Where the founder is from | Watts, South Los Angeles |
| Trademark owner of record | Joshua Kashif Taylor, as listed in the US trademark record |
| First use on record | November 2018 |
| How it began | Selling out of a van in a downtown Los Angeles parking lot |
| The giveaway detail | Yellow woven label, together with jumbo front and back screen prints |
| Core pricing, September 2026 | Tees about $150, hoodies about $200, sweatpants about $200 |
| Where it is produced | Made in Los Angeles, billed in product copy as a Black-owned business |
| The flagship shop | 7669 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles |
| The other listed addresses | 312 West 5th Street, Los Angeles; 5410 Almeda Road, Houston |