That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup: what is the label?
The LA rapper Desto Dubb started That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup, a self-owned apparel label based in Los Angeles. It shortens itself to ALOCS, a shorthand used in its own press material and in product names such as the A.L.O.C.S. T-Shirt. On paper the range is ordinary, spanning tees, hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, denim and accessories; in practice it is strange, because the brand’s own name carries the graphic load on most of it. Listed as THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC, the legal entity carries no apostrophe and a trailing ellipsis. Shoppers reach it under a dozen different spellings, including www.awfullottacoughsyrup.com/product-category/shorts alocs clothing, cough syrup clothing and the shorthand awful lot of cough syrup. Before anything else, fix this in place: the brand writes “A Awful Lot”, not “An Awful Lot”, and the ungrammatical article is deliberate. Plenty of searchers type thats a awful lot of cough syrup without the apostrophe; only the version with “A” matches the registered mark.
Who is behind it?
Desto Dubb, who comes out of Watts in South Los Angeles and makes his living as a rapper and entrepreneur, 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, steered from the same crowd as his records. His music came years before the first shirt, and that accounts for much of how the company operates. In his own account, other labels are built around an aesthetic while his is wrapped around himself instead. You catch the result in graphics that read like song titles and in drops keyed to events rather than fashion seasons.
His legal name is a scantier record than the internet implies. 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. Unsourced commercial sites circulate other names, and those are best left alone, because for every practical purpose he is Desto Dubb.
Where does the name come from?
The phrase arrived in public through a viral clip in which an officer’s line became the brand name, and Desto Dubb turned 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. 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 refers to 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 !”. 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.
What year did it start?
The year to use is 2018. Two records agree: 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. There is coverage placing the earliest selling during the pandemic, but that 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.
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 words it, which makes it an origin the company tells on itself rather than one assembled by a reporter. That detail remains a description of the method, namely 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?
Heavyweight cut-and-sew basics bearing jumbo screen prints front and back form the core. Hoodies are the heavy end, 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. Tees work 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. 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, named again and again in its own product copy, and the published fabric weight. Apparel spans XS to 3XL, denim and workwear sell by waist from 28 to 44, and neither a global size chart nor washing instructions is published. 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.
How much does it cost?
The core prices are easy to hold in your head because they barely move. Reading 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 lower end a bandana runs about $25, socks and boxers fall in the $50 to $70 band, and women’s pieces roughly $48 to $160.
Because streetwear prices and stock change constantly, read that ladder as 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 acts 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, a fact the brand places 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. That same copy calls the company 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 keeps 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. There is no store-locator page and no published opening hours, so those addresses are worth confirming before travelling. Anything else claiming to be an outlet is best judged on the garment: 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. The addresses are the ones the company lists on its own social profiles, with no published opening dates. For a contested claim such as the origin clip, 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, spelled as the label spells it | That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup |
| Abbreviated form | ALOCS, also written A.L.O.C.S. |
| Spellings people commonly type | thats a awful lot of cough syrup, awful lot of cough syrup, alocs |
| Legal company name | THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC |
| The founder | Desto Dubb, rapper and entrepreneur |
| Founder’s home | Watts, South Los Angeles |
| Registered trademark owner | Joshua Kashif Taylor, according to the US trademark record |
| First recorded use of the mark | November 2018 |
| How the selling began | Selling from a van in a downtown Los Angeles parking lot |
| The giveaway detail | Yellow woven label, alongside jumbo front and back screen prints |
| Headline prices, September 2026 | Tees about $150, hoodies about $200, sweatpants about $200 |
| Where it is made | Made in Los Angeles, presented 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 |
