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Coughee Brothaz
The Coughee Brothaz are the continuation of the Odd Squad, the Rap-A-Lot group that introduced Devin the Dude and made an album Scarface has called his favourite thing the label ever released.
The Odd Squad
Devin Copeland formed a group called 3D in 1988 with his brother Dexter and a friend, Jugg Mugg. Copeland then met Rob Quest at a talent show, and the three became the Odd Squad. Rob Quest is blind, produces, and has been central to every Devin the Dude project since.
Fadanuf Fa Erybody!!
Released on 1 February 1994 through Rap-A-Lot with Priority distribution, and produced by Carlos "DJ Styles" Garza and Rob Quest with N.O. Joe and Mike Dean. It is loose, funny, jazz-inflected and completely unlike the hard Rap-A-Lot catalogue around it. Scarface has described it as his favourite release on the label. It went out of print for years and became genuinely sought after.
Becoming the Coughee Brothaz
The group carried on under the new name, taken from the Coughee Pot, the Houston studio where much of Devin's catalogue was recorded. They released Waitin' Our Turn in 2007 and Fresh Brew in 2011, and appear across Devin's solo albums throughout.
What they are known for musically
Warm, live-sounding production, conversational writing and a complete absence of posturing. The subject matter is weed, women, cars and ordinary frustration, handled comically rather than aspirationally, and the whole approach was out of step with Houston rap in 1994 and has aged better than most of what surrounded it.
Rob Quest
He has been on the edge of several Houston movements since the late 1980s as a producer and rapper, and moved to California in 2017 to work with the Houston producer Mike Dean. His production is the connective tissue across three decades of this group's output.
Legacy
Fadanuf is regularly named among the best Houston rap albums ever made, and the group's influence is audible in every laid-back, humorous Southern rapper who followed. The Coughee name has since extended into a cannabis brand Devin co-created in 2025.
Rob Quest
He is blind, produces most of the group's material, and has been the constant across every configuration of it since 1988. Jugg Mugg has been a close companion for decades in part because he helps Rob get around. That working relationship is the actual engine of the catalogue.
Why Fadanuf was different
Rap-A-Lot in 1994 meant the Geto Boys, Scarface and Ganksta N-I-P — hard, often horrific street rap. Fadanuf Fa Erybody!! is jazz-inflected, funny and low-stakes, and the label released it anyway. Scarface naming it his favourite thing on the label says something about how the people making the harder records actually listened.
The Coughee Pot
The Houston studio gave the group its name and appears in the credits of most of Devin the Dude's catalogue, including Just Tryin' ta Live, Waitin' to Inhale and Hi Life. It functioned as a house as much as a studio.
The albums since
Waitin' Our Turn (2007) and Fresh Brew (2011) kept the group name alive alongside Devin's solo work, and the members appear across each other's records continuously. It is one of the longest-running working relationships in Southern rap.