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In the News
- Gym Class Heroes Recruit Ne-Yo, Busta Rhymes For 'Just Bananas' Next Album
- Gym Class Heroes Hype Their New Album At MTV's Woodie Awards
- Gym Class Heroes and others honored as college music favorites at mtvU Woodie Awards
- Gym Class Heroes, Academy Is ..., Boys Like Girls Clean Up At mtvU Woodie Awards
- Gym Class Heroe Hits the Mainstream
Gym Class Heroes
- StudentCity.com Appearances:
- (Cancun '07) MTV performance at The City; Appearance at Dady'O; Hung out with Spring Breakers in VIP area
Gym Class Heroes is a hip hop band that hails from New York. The band’s interesting name stems from the fact that two of the original members met in their high school gym class. In the early days, the band played parties, festivals and clubs, and they developed a strong following on the indie music scene. Their mainstream success came only after the band’s lead singer Travis McCoy appeared on MTV’s ‘Direct Effect MC Battle’ and won an appearance in Style P’s video ‘Daddy Get That Cash.’ Their performance at MTV’s Spring Break ’07 in Cancun was a favorite with Spring Breakers and the band continues to gain popularity. They were even named ‘Best New Artist’ at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2007.
Career
The group began their success and grew out of their local garage-party environment in 2003 when they hit the road with the Indie Rock festival Warped Tour. This heightened their audience to-not only hip hop fans, but also being respected by many Indie Rock listeners, crediting them for their use of live instruments, apposed to most other groups in the hip hop genre using symphonic preset instrumentation. Between the late 90’s up to 2004, the band only released a few underground EP’s independently. It wasn’t until the release of “…For the Kids” in 2005, where the group was noticed and signed to Decaydance records, which is an imprint of Indie Rock label, Fueled by Ramen, that include bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco. The group fully propelled their success by releasing their 3rd studio album in 2006 entitled, As Cruel As School Children, featuring “Shoot down the stars,” “Clothes off,” and a cover of Supertramp’s song, “Breakfast in America” making it their own titled “Cupid’s Chokehold.” With the help of Fall Out Boy’s front man Patrick Stump, the group reached the Fueled by Ramen target audience to perfection and managed to win them MTV’s “Best New Artist” in 2007. Being a party group, instead of accepting the award with a speech, the singer Travis chugged a cocktail in celebration with his other band members.
Being from New York, the band found ways, along with ample touring, to boost their popularity with the Fueled by Ramen label in various outlets. They were featured on an underground Indie developing online circuit called Onlong.com. This gave the world a look at the life of the Gym Class Heroes through a video tour blog while on tour with acts like The All American Rejects , and Fall Out Boy. Before their album broke the charts they were frequent visitors on the WBER local show in the New York area.
Albums
“Music On A CD” will be the bands fourth studio release due out late 2008 or early 2009 on Fueled by Ramen records. There has been little information released by the group, however they did mention artists to be featured on the album including Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys, and Ne-Yo. It is rumored that the album will be produced by Dr. Dre and Busta Rhymes. Front man Travis said that this album should dive deeper into the growth of the band exploring more sounds and advanced talent of guitarist Dasashi’s skills.
“As Cruel as School Children” the bands third collective release and most popular to date, and is the only Gym Class Heroes album to be certified Gold by the RIAA. This album was released twice, where the second time it was released its featured an updated version of “Cupid’s Chokehold.” This album had many firsts for the group, including fresh instrumentation such as electronic sounds and back beats. It took a dip into R&B and soul, blending beautifully with their already existing rock influence, and was also the bands first album to contain the Parental Advisory sticker on both releases. The group released three videos of the album including “Clothes off” a remake of Jermaine Stewarts 1986 track “We don’t have to take our clothes off,” and the re-release of “Cupid’s Chokehold” with a new video. The album scored great success selling over 500,000 copies.
“The Papercut Chronicles” was the first release put out by Fueled by Ramen/Decaydance records in 2005 packed with 15 tracks and a bonus CD of four additional remixed tracks. The album featured a number of hits both released with music videos and were recognized by the underground such as “Pillmatic,” “Taxi-Driver,” and the original recording of “Cupid’s Chokehold” featuring Patrick Stump. This album gained the group acceptance into the Fueled by Ramen touring family atmosphere and created a new image for collaboration of hip hop and rock.
“…For the Kids” was Gym Class Heroes first studio release independently in 2001 by the group. This album featured 15 original tracks by the group showing their unique blend of hip hop and real live rock instrumentation to the underground. This release gained the attention of various labels including their future label and label mates Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump of Fall out Boy on Fueled by Ramen Records.