Travie Lazarus McCoy (born August 6, 1981) is an American singer and rapper. He is the lead vocalist of the alternative hip-hop band Gym Class Heroes. He released his debut solo album Lazarus on June 8, 2010.
Raised in Geneva, New York, McCoy became involved with both hip hop and punk rock scenes as a teenager. He formed the group Gym Class Heroes with childhood friend Matt McGinley, and after several line-up changes, the group was signed to Fueled By Ramen, and released their debut album. The group achieved mainstream success in 2006 when its album As Cruel as School Children was released, Gym Class Heroes are most notable for the song Cupid's Chokehold.
Gym Class Heroes took a three year hiatus from music, leaving McCoy to focus on his solo career; McCoy released his debut solo album, Lazarus, in 2010. The lead single from the album, "Billionaire" featuring Bruno Mars, peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, and number three on the UK Singles Chart. The single was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Currently, McCoy is working on Gym Class Heroes' fourth studio album, The Papercut Chronicles II. McCoy is signed to T-Pain's label Nappy Boy Entertainment.
Travis made his MTV debut in the summer of 2002, as he appeared on stage at the beach house, winning a standard nationwide MC battle that was held on the MTV show Direct Effect.
McCoy and drummer Matt McGinley became friends at their local high school's gym class in ninth grade in Geneva, New York. They officially came together in 1997. The band formed when bassist Ryan Geise and drummer Matt McGinley were performing at a party in an instrumental band with no vocals. McCoy, who was in attendance at the party, took the microphone onstage and started rapping. A week later, the group came together and started making music. A prominent opening act for Gym Class Heroes was the critically acclaimed hip-hop group "ModifiedBlockStyle."
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 Bilboard 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.
In early 2010, McCoy announced that he would be pursuing a solo career. He denied rumors that Gym Class Heroes had broken up, asserting that "Since the inception of Gym Class in 1997, every member has had another musical outlet, if not three or four. This is just another one of those."
McCoy had originally prepared to record an introspective album of "sad and somber" acoustic songs reflective of his state of mind following his breakup with Katy Perry and his addiction to painkillers. However, he decided to scrap his early material and start over, calling the early material "too personal" and saying "I didn't want that to be my first look as a solo artist," comparing the album to Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak. He relocated to Miami, Florida, to record new material and recover from his addiction, which helped him to create a more upbeat album because he "want[ed] to do something positive."
McCoy decided to officially call himself "Travie" instead of Travis; he explained that he has been called Travie by friends and family for "as long as [he] can remember." He believes that the new name allows listeners to the become "that much closer" to him and to "feel much more comfortable with calling me Travie and being part of the family."
In early May 2010, McCoy released the hit single "Billionaire" with Bruno Mars, which has been successful in Europe and the U.S. since its release. McCoy released his first solo album, Lazarus on June 8, 2010, after being in the works for a year and a half. He calls the album "The longest, I think, I've spent on a record in my whole career."
He stated that he wanted to keep the number of collaborations on the album "kinda tight," but he plans to work with other artists on remixes of the album.Producers on the album include Bruno Mars, T-Pain, The Smeezingtons, The Stereotypes, Lucas Secon, Oligee and Josh Abraham; Mars, T-Pain and Cee Lo Green provide guest vocals.
The album debuted at number 25 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with sales of 15,000 copies. On 21 August 2010 Lazarus was released in Europe and entered the UK Album Charts at number 69, its peak position thus far. "Need You" was the second single from the album in the U.S, released in September 2010. "We'll Be Alright" was released on October 25, 2010 as the second single in the United Kingdom, and has already been featured in the trailer of Yogi Bear.
In July and August 2010, McCoy supported Rihanna on some of the North American dates of her Last Girl on Earth Tour.
McCoy and Bruno Mars embarked on a 13-date tour of Europe throughout October and November. They played five dates in the United Kingdom, four in Germany and one each in Holland, Denmark, Sweden and France.
McCoy performed at the 2010 MTV VMAs on September 12, 2010, on the main stage before the program cut to a performance by N.E.R.D. In November 2010, McCoy performed on the Australian Summerbeatz tour alongside Flo Rida, Jay Sean and Soulja Boy.
"Billionaire" was performed on the September 21, 2010, episode of Glee.
McCoy is featured on the remix of teen-pop singer Jessica Jarrell's debut single "Up and Running," on the singer's upcoming debut album on Island Records.
McCoy is also featured on Livin's City of Brotherly Love album, scheduled to be released in early 2011 on 700 Level Entertainment. The track "When I Approach" features Livin, McCoy and Joe Budden, and is produced by Sev-One. A video released on YouTube showed McCoy recording the song.
In mid-2010 he worked with producer Starsmith and British singer Cheryl Cole for her upcoming album. He is featured on the track "Yeah Yeah" of Cole's album Messy Little Raindrops.
In November 2010, McCoy collaborated with English R&B artist Taio Cruz on Cruz's single "Higher".
McCoy runs his own music imprint called The Bat Squad, which consists of Tim William, Nicholas Scimeca, Tequila Mockingbird, The Lazarus Project and himself. McCoy and Nicholas Scimeca formed the duo Tequila Mockingbird which is also signed under Decaydance Records, and they are working on a project. They recently released the songs "Brooklyn Basement" and "Snowglobe, a track that ended in Mic Terror's mixtaper "The Late Pass Volume 2"."
He performed "Stereo Hearts" with Maroon 5 on November 5, 2011 on Saturday Night Live. He, along with Gym Class Heroes, performed the aforementioned song with Adam Levine at the American Music Awards of 2011.
