Travis Lazarus "Travie" McCoy born August 5, 1981 is an American singer and rapper. He is the lead vocalist of the alternative hip-hop band Gym Class Heroes. He released his first solo album, Lazarus, on June 8, 2010. The lead single from the album, "Billionaire", peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the UK Singles Chart. The single was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Career
o 2.1 Gym Class Heroes
o 2.2 Solo career
* 3 Personal life
* 4 Discography
o 4.1 Studio albums
o 4.2 Singles
o 4.3 Featured singles
o 4.4 Album appearances
* 5 References
* 6 External links
Early life
McCoy was born and raised in Geneva, New York. father is Haitian, and his mother is of Irish and Native American ancestry In high school, he met future bandmate Matt McGinley in his gym class and the two bonded over a common interest in music, mostly punk rock, indie rock and hip hop. They decided to start a band and played with other musicians until Gym Class Heroes was formed in 2001. When he was fifteen, McCoy worked in a tattoo parlor as an apprentice, and shortly after, he began tattooing his friends.
As a teenager, McCoy was a fan of punk bands such as Snapcase and Earth Crisis, as well as underground rap acts such as Company Flow and the Arsonists. He says of his musical tastes "I was never a typical hip-hop kid. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed." He frequently took buses to Manhattan throughout high school to participate in battle raps at the indie rap club Fat Beats.He played the drums in high school and created a rap group with his father and his brother called True Life Playas, and says of the experience "It was so bad! The tapes exist somewhere but hopefully they’ll never be found."
After graduating from high school, McCoy attended art school at Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute and majored in fine arts and illustration.
Career
Travis made his MTV debut in the summer of 2002, as he appeared on stage at the beach house, winning a standard nation-wide MC Battle that was held on the MTV show Direct Effect.
Gym Class Heroes
After the addition of guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo and bassist Eric Roberts, Gym Class Heroes was signed to Fueled By Ramen and Decaydance Records, Fall Out Boy's bassist, Pete Wentz's, own independent record label. On the label, the band released the gold-selling album As Cruel as School Children. Since that release, the band's single "Cupid's Chokehold" reached #3 on the UK Singles Chart and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Clothes Off!!" and "Cookie Jar" peaked at #5 and #6 on the UK Singles Chart. They have collaborated with Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump on numerous occasions, notably for providing backing vocals on the song "Cupid's Chokehold". Stump also produced the majority of their album The Quilt, which was released on September 9, 2008 and peaked at #14 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and #41 on the UK Albums Chart.
In 2009, McCoy remixed the Bring Me the Horizon song "Chelsea Smile" for their remixes album, Suicide Season: Cut Up!.
McCoy and Gym Class Heroes plan to release the Papercut Chronicles II in late 2011.
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travie mccoy
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