Kota the Friend w/ Landon Wordswell in Portland

Kota the Friend is the stage name of Avery Marcel Joshua Jones, an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He took his stage name from the Disney movie Brother Bear. At eight years of age he learned to play the trumpet, later picking up the keyboard, guitar and bass, and he attended the Brooklyn High School of the Arts and Five Towns College for trumpet.

During college he created the rap trio Nappy Hair, releasing two mixtapes, "Autumn" and "Nappy Hair. " He has remained an independent act throughout his career, turning down 3 major record labels and instead creating his own label and apparel store FLTBYS. His debut studio album FOTO featured appearances from Saba and Hello O'shay, and he subsequently embarked on his first headlining tour, the FOTO Tour.

His second studio album, EVERYTHING, featured Joey Badass, Bas and KYLE, among others, and peaked at number 162 on the Billboard 200. His third studio album, MEMO, was released in July 2022 with two features, Hello O'shay and singer Brianna Castro.

He owns FLTBYS, a skate, music and travel culture brand he started as a student in the 11th grade in Brooklyn, New York, and in 2020 he purchased a building in Midtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which houses his FLTBYS retail store on the ground floor. He has one son and practices veganism periodically.