What on earth is That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup?
The LA rapper Desto Dubb launched That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup, an independent apparel label out of Los Angeles. The label reduces to ALOCS, a contraction used across its press material and built into product names such as the A.L.O.C.S. T-Shirt. On paper the black alocs tee range is conventional, taking in tees, hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, denim and accessories; in practice it is unusual, because the brand’s own name is the main graphic on most of it. The registered entity is written THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC, with no apostrophe and a trailing ellipsis. Shoppers reach it under a dozen spelling variants, including alocs clothing, cough syrup clothing and the shorthand awful lot of cough syrup. Before anything else, note this: the brand writes « A Awful Lot », not « An Awful Lot », and the ungrammatical article is a choice. Many people type thats a awful lot of cough syrup without the apostrophe, but only the version with « A » fits the registered mark.
Who is the brand?
Desto Dubb, who came up in Watts in South Los Angeles and doubles as a rapper and entrepreneur, is the founder and the chief executive. This is not a design studio with a rapper attached as a face; it is a rapper’s business, steered from the same network as his records. He was putting out music years before he sold a shirt, which explains 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 notice the result in graphics that read like song titles and in drops pegged to events rather than fashion seasons.
Joshua Kashif Taylor is the registrant on the United States trademark for the phrase, and posts on the brand’s own blog carry a matching byline. On his legal name the documentary record is scantier than the internet implies. Unsourced commercial sites repeat other names, and those are best left alone, because for every practical purpose he is Desto Dubb.
Where does the name come from?
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. Nearly every write-up recycles the anecdote, and it deserves care, because material online claims the clip was staged and no primary transcript settles it. Documentation is confined 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 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 rest of this piece is about garments and prices.
When did the brand start?
The year to use is 2018. The trademark filing records 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 to the pandemic, which conflicts with both markers; 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 muster.
It began, literally, with 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?
At the core stand heavyweight cut-and-sew basics bearing jumbo screen prints front and back. Tee names cover King Of The Kill, Drankenstein, Juicebusters and Big Pharma, and the Classic Cough Syrup T-Shirt is 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.
Better than any graphic, two details identify the brand, namely the signature yellow woven label, invoked 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. 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 hardly shift. As of September 2026, a tee is about $150 at the brand’s own store, a hoodie about $200 and sweatpants about $200. Near $150 buys denim shorts, puffer jackets run between roughly $200 and $250, belts and Dickies trousers around $250, and the Dickies jacket tops the range near $350. At the other extreme 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, take that ladder as a shape rather than a quote. That band puts 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 is it produced, and where can you buy it?
Los Angeles, and the brand says so on the garments themselves. « Made in Los Angeles » is restated in the product copy, and individual pieces are described as hand-dyed and printed or screen-printed in the city rather than finished abroad. The same copy also presents the company as 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.
The company operates its own online store plus a small number of physical locations. The flagship is 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 offers 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.
Brand fact file
The table below gathers the details that survive checking and leaves out the ones that do not. Read from the brand’s own store in September 2026, the prices are hedged, because they move. Dates here come out of 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. Where a claim is contested, such as the origin clip, the row records what is documented. It works best as a starting point for your own checks rather than a final word.
| Detail line |
The record |
| Brand name, as the brand spells it |
That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup |
| Short form |
ALOCS, also styled A.L.O.C.S. |
| Frequently typed spellings |
thats a awful lot of cough syrup, awful lot of cough syrup, alocs |
| Entity on the register |
THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC |
| Founder of the label |
Desto Dubb, rapper and businessman |
| Founder’s home |
Watts, South Los Angeles |
| Owner of record on the trademark |
Joshua Kashif Taylor, as recorded in the US trademark record |
| First use on record |
November 2018 |
| How the selling began |
Trading out of a van in a downtown Los Angeles parking lot |
| Signature detail |
Yellow woven label, alongside jumbo front and back screen prints |
| Core prices, September 2026 |
Tees about $150, hoodies about $200, sweatpants about $200 |
| Production |
Made in Los Angeles, presented in product copy as a Black-owned business |
| Flagship address |
7669 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles |
| Other listed locations |
312 West 5th Street, Los Angeles; 5410 Almeda Road, Houston |
