Brooklyn rapper Kota The Friend‘s had a relatively quiet second half of 2021 after dropping off two distinct projects at the top of the year. The first, Lyrics To Go, Vol. 2, was more of an abstract effort that featured Kota giving freewheeling takes on minute-long instrumentals, tackling any subject that came to mind. The second was To Kill A Sunrise with Statik Selektah, which was nevertheless a laid-back attempt to have fun rapping on a cohesive, lyrically-focused project.
Since then, he has stuck to more “Lyrics to Go”-style freestyles and videos from those two projects, until October, when he dropped “Bitter,” on which he vented about an ex-girlfriend who spread rumors about him on Twitter after a bad breakup. However, now he’s back on a positive vibe, celebrating the spirit of Thanksgiving and re-centering himself with “Grateful,” a gracious, mellow meditation on all good things in his life. Fittingly, the video focuses mainly on his son, cutting clips of home movies with tour footage from Kota’s independently-funded travels as he details all the things he’s grateful for, including summers spent in warm weather, having the resources to take care of his family, and even the setbacks that have come up and taught him valuable life lessons.
Watch Kota The Friend’s “Grateful” video above.
