Avery Marcel Joshua Jones (born October 16, 1992), known by his stage name Kota The Friend (Stylized as KOTA The Friend), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He got his stage name from the Disney movie Brother Bear and is actually a Native American word "Koda" meaning friend.

Kota the Friend released his debut mixtape, Palm Tree Liquor in 2016, followed by his second mixtape Paloma Beach in 2017. In 2018, he released his third mixtape, the lengthier Anything, with 2019 marking the release of his first independent studio album, FOTO, followed by the Lyrics to GO, Vol. 1 compilation in January 2020 and then his second studio album, EVERYTHING, in late May of the same year. Kota then went on to release Lyrics to GO, Vol.2 in January 2021 and the collaborative project To Kill A Sunrise with Statik Selektah later in March. Lyrics to GO, Vol.3 was surprise-released in January 2022, with Kota's third studio album, MEMO, following in July of that year. In January of 2023 Kota dropped the 4th installment of his Lyrics to GO series. In March of that year he dropped the sequel to To Kill A Sunrise, in To See A Sunset, which was also produced by Statik Selektah and had a deluxe version released later on. He closed out 2023 by dropping his fourth studio album, Protea on June 30th. Moving into 2024 he released Lyrics to GO Vol. 5 on January 25th.