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That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup: what is it?

The rapper Desto Dubb launched That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup, an indie clothing label headquartered in Los Angeles. ALOCS is the short form it applies to itself, appearing both in its own press material and in product names such as the A.L.O.C.S. T-Shirt. What the label sells reads unremarkable on paper, made up of tees, hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, denim and accessories, yet strange in practice, ALOCS streetwear since the brand’s own name works as the main graphic on most of it. Listed as THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC, the legal entity carries no apostrophe and a trailing ellipsis. Buyers arrive by way of a dozen spellings, including alocs clothing, cough syrup clothing and the shorthand awful lot of cough syrup. Before anything else, get this straight: the brand writes « A Awful Lot », not « An Awful Lot », and the ungrammatical article is entirely on purpose. It is routine to type thats a awful lot of cough syrup without the apostrophe, yet only the version with « A » matches the registered mark.

Who makes it?

Desto Dubb, a rapper and entrepreneur from Watts in South Los Angeles, is the founder and the chief executive. Music came years before the first shirt, and that clarifies much of how the company conducts itself. This is not a design studio with a rapper attached as a face; it is a rapper’s business, steered from the same circle as his records. He has argued 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 timed to events rather than fashion seasons.

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. The internet implies more about his legal name than the record will bear, and that record is thin. Unsourced commercial sites carry other names, and those are best left alone, because for every practical purpose he is Desto Dubb.

How did the name come about?

A viral clip pushed the phrase into circulation, an officer’s line became the brand name, and Desto Dubb turned 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. It also does not treat that as a selling point, and its own site carries a standing banner reading « ! PLEASE DO NOT SIP DRANK AND SHOOT FIREARMS ! ». Medical and horror imagery runs through the product names, from Big Pharma and Promethazine Tour to Paralysis and Drankenstein, as a graphic vocabulary rather than an instruction. The clothing is clothing, and the remainder of this piece sticks to garments and prices.

What year did it start?

Put it at 2018. The trademark filing puts 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 manage. 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.

The beginning was literally a van. The brand’s own about page recounts 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 captures the method: 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 does the brand actually sell?

At the core stand heavyweight cut-and-sew basics bearing 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. Tee names take in King Of The Kill, Drankenstein, Juicebusters and Big Pharma, and the Classic Cough Syrup T-Shirt is published at 6.5 oz organic cotton. 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.

Two details identify the brand better than any graphic: the signature yellow woven label, repeated again and again in its own product copy, and the published fabric weight. Fit guidance changes by garment and is not uniform: the classic pieces are called true to size, while the lightweight jersey tees say plainly that they run small. Apparel goes XS to 3XL, denim and workwear sell by waist from 28 to 44, and neither a global size chart nor washing instructions is published.

What does it cost?

Because they barely move, the core prices are easy to hold in your head. 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, and the Dickies jacket tops the range near $350. The other end has 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 move constantly, which makes that ladder a shape rather than a quote. That band positions cough syrup clothing at the upper end of independent streetwear, well above mall-tier graphic brands and far below European luxury houses. The band also works as an authenticity signal, since 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 puts on the garments themselves. The product copy hammers « Made in Los Angeles », with individual pieces 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. Given local small-batch production, the numbers at these price levels add up, because a 16 oz cotton hoodie made here was never going to be a $60 garment.

The company runs its own online store plus a small number of physical locations. At 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. The company publishes no store-locator page and no opening hours, so those addresses are worth confirming before travelling. Anything else that calls itself 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

The table below collects the details that survive checking and leaves out the ones that do not. The dates are sourced from the trademark record and dated press coverage rather than brand mythology. The prices were pulled from the brand’s own store in September 2026 and are hedged, since they move. The addresses are the ones the company lists on its own social profiles, with no published opening dates. Where a claim is contested, 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.

Detail line	Details
Brand name, as the brand spells it	That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup
Abbreviated form	ALOCS, also written A.L.O.C.S.
Frequently typed spellings	thats a awful lot of cough syrup, awful lot of cough syrup, alocs
Legal company name	THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC
Founder and chief executive	Desto Dubb, rapper and entrepreneur
Founder’s home ground	Watts, South Los Angeles
Trademark holder of record	Joshua Kashif Taylor, according to the US trademark record
First use of the mark	November 2018
How the selling began	Selling out of a van in a downtown Los Angeles parking lot
The telltale detail	Yellow woven label, alongside 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, described 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