Codefendants formed in 2021 by Sam King & Ceschi Ramos through a collision of the left-field hip-hop movement and punk rock worlds. After hearing early demos at Fat Mike’s studio, he joined the project as lead producer and bassist, helping shape the band’s unpredictable sound.
Codefendants play Crime Wave music – a mix of everything they love and everything they would’ve obsessed over as teenagers. Their songs pull from punk, hip-hop, folk, ska, and Tropicalia into something raw, melodic, and impossible to pin down. Rooted in an anti-authoritarian ethos and shaped by real life collisions with the law, the band channels hard-earned experience into music about survival, resistance, humor, and refusing to be defined by any system.
