how coota brown, the self-proclaimed master p of austin, got his name

last weekend, i was chatting with someone who recently gave up drinking and they said “i used to get drunker than cooter brown” and i had NEVER heard anyone say that in my entire life until last weekend. apparently it’s just something people say. they said it doesn’t have a real origin story.

fast forward to tuesday’s hip-hop open mic at scratchouse, and i’m introduced to a rapper. we’re talking, he’s making everyone laugh…and he says his name is coota brown. i’m thinking: this has got to be the biggest coincidence of 2019. in 3 days time i learn about a term and then meet a rapper named after it? this has got to be a good story. without me asking, he jumps into the origin story…

people think cooter brown is just something people say, but he’s was actually a real person during the civil war in the 19th century. he was neutral, didn’t want to fight for the north or the south. so he apparently would get chocolate wasted and tell stories which got him out of enlisting in the army and is how he became the this saying.

now he tells the story of how he got that name

my grandpa was really drunk one time and just started calling me cooter “hey cooter come over here”

“where are you at cooter”

this was before he was rapping.

he was mad “that’s not my name why you callin me that!?” (i never got his birth name)

“i’m tryna call you that now. it’ll stick, you’ll see“ his grandpa replies without anyone knowing where that impetus came from. pre-coota coota just blows it off.

fast forward a couple years and the rapper currently known as coota has started to rap, but he doesn’t have a name yet.

he also suffers the loss of his grandpa. while grieving, he’s trying to figure out his artist name. at this point he kind of displays himself in a very wavering state, pacing and looking up to the sky. he’s thinking, he’s thinking, and brainstorming and BOOM. it hits him. he’s going to go by cooter brown, but will slop off the -er and add an -a.

P.S. coota is an acronym. i just don’t remember what it is…