That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup: what is it exactly?
That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup is an independent Los Angeles streetwear brand founded by the rapper Desto Dubb. ALOCS is the abbreviation it answers to, appearing both in the press material and in item names such as the A.L.O.C.S. T-Shirt. What the label sells reads plain on paper, taking in tees, hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, denim and accessories, yet odd in practice, since the brand’s own name serves as the main graphic on most of it. Buyers turn up via a dozen different spellings, including alocs clothing, awful lot of cough syrup hoodie cough syrup clothing and the shorthand awful lot of cough syrup. Registered as THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC, the legal entity has no apostrophe and a trailing ellipsis. One detail is worth settling first: the brand writes “A Awful Lot”, not “An Awful Lot”, and the ungrammatical article is intentional. It is standard to type thats a awful lot of cough syrup without the apostrophe, yet only the version with “A” matches the registered mark.
Who is behind it?
The founder and chief executive is Desto Dubb, a rapper and entrepreneur from Watts in South Los Angeles. It is not a design studio that bolted a rapper on as a face; it is a rapper’s business, steered from the same orbit as his records. His music came years before the first shirt, and that accounts for much of how the company operates. He has described other labels as built around an aesthetic, and his own as wrapped around himself instead. You spot the result in graphics that read like song titles and in drops pegged to events rather than fashion seasons.
The internet suggests more about his legal name than the record carries, and that record is thin. 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 do the rounds on unsourced commercial sites and are best left alone, since for every practical purpose he is Desto Dubb.
Where did the name originate?
A viral clip carried the phrase to the public, an officer’s line became the brand name, and Desto Dubb made that line into a business. The anecdote shows up in 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 gives 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. It also will not treat that as a selling point, and its own site displays a standing banner reading “! PLEASE DO NOT SIP DRANK AND SHOOT FIREARMS !”. The product names carry medical and horror imagery, from Big Pharma and Promethazine Tour to Paralysis and Drankenstein, 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 brand start?
Use 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. Having two independent pointers to a single year is more than most young streetwear brands can produce. Some coverage puts the earliest selling to the pandemic, which conflicts with both markers; the filing and the anniversary piece are the stronger pair.
The beginning was literally 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 tells it, which makes it an origin the company tells on itself rather than one assembled by a reporter. The method is still summed up by that detail: 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 is actually on the rail?
At the core sit heavyweight cut-and-sew basics wearing jumbo screen prints front and back. 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. 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.
Better than any graphic, two details identify the brand, namely the signature yellow woven label, repeated again and again in its own product copy, and the published fabric weight. Apparel stretches XS to 3XL, denim and workwear sell by waist from 28 to 44, and neither a global size chart nor washing instructions is published. 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.
What does it cost?
Easy to hold in your head, the core prices move very little. A tee is about $150 at the brand’s own store as of September 2026, a hoodie about $200 and sweatpants about $200. Denim shorts settle near $150, puffer jackets between roughly $200 and $250, belts and Dickies trousers around $250, while 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.
Streetwear prices and stock change constantly, so treat that ladder 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. The band also functions as an authenticity signal, since 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. 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. That same copy describes the company 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 operates 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. Because there is no store-locator page and no published opening hours, those addresses are worth confirming before travelling. Judge anything else claiming to be an outlet on the garment itself: the yellow woven label, the published fabric weight, the real price level, and whether the product name appears in the brand’s own catalogue.
The brand fact file
The table below assembles the details that survive checking and leaves out the ones that do not. Dates here rely 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. Those addresses are the ones the company lists on its own social profiles, and no opening dates are published. For a contested claim such as the origin clip, the row records what is documented. Use it as a starting point for your own checks rather than a final word.
| Item | The record |
|---|---|
| Brand name, spelled as the label spells it | That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup |
| Shorthand form | ALOCS, also rendered A.L.O.C.S. |
| Spellings shoppers commonly search | thats a awful lot of cough syrup, awful lot of cough syrup, alocs |
| Entity on the register | THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC |
| Who founded it | Desto Dubb, rapper and businessman |
| Founder’s home | Watts, South Los Angeles |
| Who holds the trademark | Joshua Kashif Taylor, according to the US trademark record |
| First use of the mark | November 2018 |
| How the selling began | Sales from a van in a downtown Los Angeles parking lot |
| The telltale detail | Yellow woven label, alongside jumbo front and back screen prints |
| Main prices, September 2026 | Tees about $150, hoodies about $200, sweatpants about $200 |
| Production | Made in Los Angeles, described in product copy as a Black-owned business |
| The flagship | 7669 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles |
| The other listed addresses | 312 West 5th Street, Los Angeles; 5410 Almeda Road, Houston |