{"id":21584,"date":"2023-12-12T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T20:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multi.nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/brooklyn-rapper-kota-the-friend-shows-love-for-his-fans-family-and-hometown\/"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:40:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T14:40:36","slug":"brooklyn-rapper-kota-the-friend-shows-love-for-his-fans-family-and-hometown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/brooklyn-rapper-kota-the-friend-shows-love-for-his-fans-family-and-hometown\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Rapper Kota the Friend Shows Love for His Fans, Family and Hometown"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Kota the Friend talks about his music influences, Brooklyn, and being on tour<\/h3>\n<p><em><strong>Article &amp; photos By Asar John<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Brooklyn-born rapper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/kotathefriend\/?hl=en\"><strong>Kota the Friend<\/strong><\/a> closed his first 20-city tour as the main act on Nov. 25 with his final stop landing him right back home: New York City.<\/p>\n<p>For this introspective rapper from Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, the \u201cFlowers For My Friends\u201d tour pulls at the heartstrings, telling <strong>ClintonHill.com<\/strong> about his fans sharing the emotional experience of listening to his music.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was able to hear so many stories about how my music has gotten so many people through tough times,\u201d <strong>said Kota<\/strong>, whose tour hit both coasts and also Canada.<\/p>\n<p>The 31-year old often centers mental struggle within his music, with several albums such as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PL3_qeynJB4Jyv7fEyrBgmqNsdAV9Ys03l\">Palm Tree Liquor<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/y4cE31LoQ4I?si=oTwiA1VZGrxTKFIf\">Paloma Beach<\/a>\u201d touching upon his own battles with depression.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can write about whatever I\u2019m going through in my life at that moment, and then I find out that many people go through the same things,\u201d said Kota, adding that fans consistently reach out about his music helping them with depression battles.<\/p>\n<p>Like many rappers before him, his discography assures an homage to the borough of Kings with songs such as \u201cBrooklyn Bodega\u201d and \u201cGo Brooklyn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBrooklyn is just this cool and unique place,\u201d said Kota. \u201cWhere I grew up in Clinton Hill is special because there\u2019s a lot of art and creativity all around so you\u2019re automatically influenced by the surroundings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kota\u2019s Brooklyn experience runs the gamut from trumpet playing at middle school in Clinton Hill and during high school in Prospect Heights, to his family across town in Brownsville and East New York. A culmination of people, instruments and places all contribute to Kota\u2019s methodical wordplay, shouting out his mom as a natural contributor to his creativity and even welcomed his six-year old son to perform alongside him at the Irving Plaza show.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think everything that we do in our lives kind of shapes and influences what we do later in life,\u201d said the rapper. \u201cMy later albums just show the progression in writing and production quality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kota delves into his latest album, \u201c<strong>Protea<\/strong>,\u201d which introduces bouncy, feel-good beats throughout the tracks. The radiance of \u201cProtea\u201d is especially felt in songs like \u201cBarcelona\u201d, \u201cForget About It\u201d and \u201cNobody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s definitely focused on good vibes and the positivity that I was feeling while I was making that album,\u201d said Kota. \u201cThat\u2019s what I was going for and I think it resonated with people who just love good music and lyrics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asking Kota how he\u2019s been a machine of productivity with the The \u201cFlowers For My Friends\u201d tour and the release of three albums and 12 singles this year, he said, \u201cthat\u2019s the beauty of being independent\u2026 I can do what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He even created his own music label, <a href=\"https:\/\/fltbys.com\/\">FLTBYS<\/a> (Flight Boys), which doubles as a clothing brand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all have a lot to say but I\u2019m blessed to be able to put it on paper and then turn it into a song, whenever I want.<\/p>\n<p>Fans of Kota can look forward to a new album, \u201c<strong>Lyrics to Go Vol. 5<\/strong>\u201d, dropping in January, a children\u2019s book series and a set of vinyls for the five-part \u201cLyrics to Go&#8221; series that details songs on each individual album, and plans for a tour abroad in China and South Africa in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kota the Friend talks about his music influences, Brooklyn, and being on tour Article &amp; photos By Asar John Brooklyn-born rapper Kota the Friend closed his first 20-city tour as the main act on Nov. 25 with his final stop landing him right back home: New York City. For this introspective rapper from Clinton Hill, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5893,"featured_media":21585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Brooklyn Rapper Kota the Friend Shows Love for His Fans, Family and Hometown - Brooklyn News and Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/brooklyn-rapper-kota-the-friend-shows-love-for-his-fans-family-and-hometown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brooklyn Rapper Kota the Friend Shows Love for His Fans, Family and Hometown\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kota the Friend talks about his music influences, Brooklyn, and being on tour Article &amp; photos By Asar John Brooklyn-born rapper Kota the Friend closed his first 20-city tour as the main act on Nov. 25 with his final stop landing him right back home: New York City. 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