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Music Review – Kota The Friend “Grateful”

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Welcome to my first music review! This review is dedicated to Kota The Friend otherwise known as Avery Marcel Joshua Jones. I am choosing this artist because I went into 2022 listening to him. I discovered Kota in November 2021 when someone sent me the song “grateful”. The cover of this song is of Avery’s son and I think it is so wholesome.

The song “Grateful” has the following lyrics: (I have put the lines I love in red)

Yeah, yeah
Out in Colorado
Hit the lotto
Got a cabin in the middle of the mountain
Shit, I feel like I’m the mayor now

Used to sip on bottle after bottle
I was drownin’, get the goggles
Now I’m rooted in the present, what you sayin’ now

Everything is love, that’s the motto
Spend the winter out in southern California, where it’s warmer
I don’t play around

I don’t give a fuck if niggas coming for your soul
They don’t know you, if I love you
Homie, I’ma always say it loud

Grateful, grateful, grateful, grateful, grateful
Even in a rough patch I’ma always make due
Even when I’m down bad, I be sayin’ thank you
Even when I’m wild sad
I could never hate you

Nah

Get up and I get it on the worst day
Self-care, nigga that’s the first thing
Grind ’til you chillin’ on a workday
And when you get it I hope you are

Grateful, grateful, grateful, grateful, yah, yah
Thank you, Jesus, Buddha, Jah or Allah
Please insert whatever you believe in

Celebrating this abundant season

Thank you for the setbacks on the way up
Thank you for the stories that they made up

Thank you for my Noah’s arch
That’s word to blu’, the deep blue sea, can’t fuck with me

I’ma be great when you showin’ me love
I’ma be great when you throwin’ me hate
I’ma be great even when I am done
You got another thing comin’ if you think I’ma break

I was all around the world for a couple of months
I was out in long beach for a couple of weeks
I be walking through the town just like you and your friends
When you see me on the block there ain’t nothin’ to see

I’m in Malibu, nigga, what’s up?
Took a trip to Sedona
We was whippin’ the truck
Then we headed to Montana
We was looking for ye
And I know you couldn’t make it but we sending you love, yeah

I remember we was still on the block
Big dreams
I ain’t even have a cent to my name
Shit crave

We was tryna hide the blunt from the cops and stay low
Making three songs every day
Now I’m up and I am

Grateful, grateful, grateful, grateful, yah, yah
Thank you, Jesus, Buddha, Jah or Allah
Please insert whatever you believe in

Celebrating this abundant season

Thank you for the setbacks on the way up
Thank you for the stories that they made up

Thank you for my Noah’s arch
That’s word to blu’, the deep blue sea, can’t fuck with me

Woke up feelin’ like yes
Now I got another day
And I’m doin’ my best
Give a fuck about the fame
I could really care less
I am here to spread love
Rollin’ outta my bed

I done came a long way
From the person I was
They be throwin’ me they pain
And I let it all come

I don’t never shoot back
I just send ’em back love
Always had mad love
Now I got it backed up

Now my gun goin’
Love for you
And love for you
And you and you

We only human
We deserve it
Trauma real and you been hurting
I been hurtin’, we been searchin’

I been learning, broke the surface
Found my purpose, open curtains, wrote these verses, I been workin’
Tables turnin’ Life get good when you moving with love
And what you need is the shit that you want
Every day a nigga

Grateful, grateful, grateful, grateful, yah, yah
Thank you, Jesus, Buddha, Jah or Allah
Please insert whatever you believe in
Celebrating this abundant season

Thank you for the setbacks on the way up
Thank you for the stories that they made up

Thank you for my Noah’s arch
That’s word to blu’, the deep blue sea, can’t fuck with me

I was mesmerized by this song because it described gratitude as a state of love. The line “everything is love, that the motto” resonated with me because it reminded me of the deep conversations my cousins would have with the family when they came to visit. I remember being 11 hearing theories of finding a little bit of love/God in everything, and it stuck with me.


Speaking of God, the line where he says, “thank you, Jesus, Buddha, Jah, or Allah. Please insert whatever you believe in,” was pure because I feel that even if you don’t believe in God, this line resonates. We all have something or maybe some higher power to thank for all we have. Abundance doesn’t just come willingly; it has a source.

The other line that resonated with me was “grind ’til you chillin’ on a workday.” I love the emphasis on “workday.” Usually, we work hard during the weekdays (our typical workdays) but imagine if we worked hard on weekends and had the whole week to chill? Now that is a perspective shift.


Love is something we all yearn for, Kota The Friend encapsulates this desire perfectly in these lines: “We only human. We deserve it. Trauma real and you been hurting. I been hurtin’, we been searchin’… Tables turnin’ Life get good when you moving with love”. I believe these lines let us know that we are not alone. In lines “you been hurting. I been hurtin’, we been searching…” The transition from you to I to we shows you we all are hurting together. Once we understand this, we will all shed a little more love for each other.


I listen to “Grateful” by Kota The Friend whenever I have to remind myself to be grateful or if I want to be filled with the spark of love again. Often, I find myself losing that spark. However, I really want to be left feeling the gratitude and love in me so I can send it back to others again.

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