Artist Profile: KOTA The Friend

        Radhame Rodriguez, better known as Kota The Friend, was born on October 6, 1992. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York where he currently resides. He keeps his life very private, but we know he has one son. He features his kid singing a verse in his new album. This album is featured in the hip-hop/rap genre. At 27 years old, Kota has gained so much recognition and it is well deserved since he has worked so hard to find a platform in a world filled with many talented people.

         As mentioned before, Radhame is currently 27 years old which makes him young and full of potential in these upcoming years. He released his first E.P. on July 9th, 2016. That was about 4 years ago, and since then he’s released various singles and albums. His 2016 E.P, “Palm Tree Liquor”, is currently available on SoundCloud but absent in platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify. After his release on his first E.P, Kota started making more music. For example, “Law chair” and “Like Water” became hits in 2017. It wasn’t until 2018, when Kota released “Chicago Diner” and “Alkaline,” when people truly started to recognize him and his music. Both these songs are one of the most listened to songs by him according to Apple Music charts. To add on, “Colorado” (2018), “Hollywood” (2019), and “B.Q.E.” (2020) are also some of his top songs. His most recent single, “throwback thursday” featuring Lil Keed and Johan Lenox, was released on July 16, 2020, but he hasn’t released any new singles since.

           Instead, Kota has released a whole album, titled “Everything”. This name was inspired by the first album he released, which was titled “Anything”. In an interview with Revolt, Rodriguez mentions what the album meant to him, and the collaborators’ featured in it. He states, “So this album, I’m pretty much talking about all the things that I want, what means everything to me, what’s important to me, and what I put before everything else. We have other people on the album— fans, actors, and artists — just talking about what means everything to them on the interludes.” This perfectly sums up the whole album, since most songs have a cheerful tone and small messages about what he loves and why. As he mentioned, this album includes many other collaborations. This can be seen in the songs, “B.Q.E.” which includes artists like Joey Bada$$ and Bas, “Morocco” featuring Tobu Lou, and “Everything” which includes his son in the ending verse. 

          Besides making music, Kota makes sure he uses his platform to spread positivity and awareness of injustice. When the BLM movement was starting to receive national attention, Kota contributed by informing his 346K Instagram followers on how they could help serve justice for the lives lost. As well as, what they can still do to prevent those terrible actions from happening again. He uses his Twitter account to post quotes that create a motivational and inspirational atmosphere. His impact has allowed his audience to further educate themselves and inspire them to do more in this world. 

          Kota will only continue to grow in the music industry since he has already accomplished so much. New York is known for attracting talent and Radhame is no exception. He displays a great example of all the key factors a great artist should have; dedication, love, and compassion. He didn’t have much growing up which makes his story very fascinating, how people can grow into something bigger and better. For that reason Kota states, “I wanna show people there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. On top of that, I want to hold the light”. With that being said, the world cannot wait to see what projects Kota The Friend has for us.