Avery Marcel Joshua Jones, better known by his stage name Kota the Friend, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and producer from New York City, New York.
Early Life[]
Avery was born on October 16, 1992 in Brooklyn of New York City. During his childhood, he developed an affinity for music, learning keyboard, guitar, and bass. He attended the Brooklyn High School of the Arts and Five Towns College for trumpet. During his college years, he also founded a hip hop trio named "Nappy Hair", only releasing two mixtapes under the group.
At some point, he departed from the group to pursue his own career.
Career[]
Avery debuted his first solo mixtape Palm Tree Liquor in 2016, followed by his second mixtape Paloma Beach a year later in 2017.
His first studio album, Anything. was released on February 16, 2018. It was at this point where Avery decided to go down an independent route, and founded his label FLTBYS months before. Avery also stated to have turned down three major record deals in order to go the direction of a "do-it-yourself" mentality, such as him producing his own music and filming his own music videos.
He released his second studio album, Foto on May 15, 2019.
On May 22, 2020, he released his third studio album Everything, which features guest appearances from more notable artists such as Joey Bada$$, Bas and KYLE. Around the release of the album is where Kota begun to gain even more traction in the spotlight.
Starting in January 2020, he begun a series of short albums titled Lyrics To Go, containing 1-2 minute songs. Volume 1 was released on January 20, 2020, Volume 2 was released on January 18, 2021, and Volume 3 was released on January 14, 2022.
He is scheduled to release his fourth studio album Memo later in 2022.
Discography[]
Studio albums[]
- Anything. (2018)
- Foto (2019)
- Everything (2020)
- Memo (2022)
Mixtapes[]
- Palm Tree Liquor (2016)
- Paloma Beach (2017)
Compilation albums[]
- Lyrics To Go Vol. 1 (2020)
- Lyrics To Go Vol. 2 (2021)
- Lyrics To Go Vol. 3 (2022)