Gym Class Heroes is a relatively recent New York-based musical group performing songs in the direction of alternative rap. The team was formed when the guys, Travie McCoy and Matt McGinley, met at a joint physical education class at school. Despite the youth of this musical group, its biography has many controversial and interesting points.
The emergence of Gym Class Heroes and the first steps to success
The creation of the group has a rather interesting and fascinating history, which was even reflected in the name of the group. Two future musicians, Travie McCoy and Matt McGinley, went to the same school together for physical education lessons. It was thanks to this that the friends soon became friends and decided to create music together.
According to official data, Gym Class Heroes was formed in 1997, but the guys started their creative activity a little earlier. At first, the musicians performed at parties of acquaintances and friends, various holidays and events. Soon the guys began to move forward and perform already in clubs, as well as at festivals. After years of rehearsals and local gigs, the band landed on the Warped Tour in 2003.
A little later, guitarist Milo Bonacci and bassist Ryan Geise joined the band.
First Gym Class Heroes contract
After some time, as Patrick Stump first heard the song of the group, he invited all the participants to one of his shows. Just after that, the musicians agreed to a contract with Decaydance Records.
This is how the first gold album of the group "For the Kids" was released. He brought the musicians great fame and popularity. One of their songs climbed to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Change of composition and rise in popularity
A year later, the guitarist left the musical group for personal reasons, and Lumumba-Kasongo, who is in the group to this day, immediately took his place.
In 2005, there was a rise in popularity. Their songs began to sound in the first places of the charts. It was during this period that another musician left the line-up, bassist Ryan Geise.
The main ringleader and head of the musical group, Travie McCoy, became the winner in the MC competition on MTV. The prize for the victory was the participation of the musician in the video clip of the rapper Styles P.
Joint projects Gym Class Heroes
The musical group also participated in other third-party projects, won at various festivals and competitions.
Sometimes the band collaborates with other musicians and performers to create individual compositions. For example, with backing vocalist Patrick Stump.
Creative activity 2006–2007
In the spring of 2006, one of the radio stations included the song "Cupid's Chokehold" in their lists. It sounded there just before the release of the band's second full album "The Papercut Chronicles". This brought great success and recognition to the group. However, the musicians were very disappointed in this song. They dreamed of promoting "The Queen and I" as the album's lead single.
Creative activity in 2008
In the summer of 2008, the group actively performed at some festivals and competitions, and after a while went on a US tour.
After the performances, the guys immediately started writing the new album "The Quilt". As a result, the album was released in September. The Main Disc consisted of songs that were written and performed in collaboration with other bands and musicians.
For members of the group, the work on this album was very interesting and attractive. In their interview, the guys said that it was in the work on this disc that they really plunged into creativity.
Scene incident
The group's reputation suffered a bit during the summer's performances. During the performance, Travie McCoy hit one man in the head with a microphone. The latter shouted insults at the musicians.
He even called the man to the stage to show him to the crowd of fans. However, the group's producer stated that in addition to insults, an unbalanced fan also hit the musician in the knee.
Creative activity 2009–2011
Since 2009, Travie McCoy has been especially interested in solo projects. He wrote and released a co-written Bruno Mars a song that immediately became popular and successful. He even released his first album in 2010.
Lumumba-Kasongo also decided to take up a solo project and created the Soul project, to which he devoted a lot of time and effort.
Creative activity 2011–2019
In 2011, McCoy told fans that a new album was planned for release soon.
In addition to working on the album, the group began to release a lot of songs in personal and collaborative work. Each of them entered the top charts and received some awards.
The video for one of their latest songs has even made its way onto the YouTube platform. After this video, the guys decided to take a break and suspend their activities.
To the delight of the fans, in 2018 the musical group returned to their former creative activity, but less than a year later the group broke up again. According to the musicians, they are not going to return to their previous work at the moment. They plan to be on sabbatical for an indefinite period of time.
Gym Class Heroes is a group with a short but very interesting history. The guys survived the change of composition, losses and failures. But despite this, they received many awards and recognition from listeners. It is noteworthy that only real musical instruments are used in their songs. After all, this is not typical for compositions of this genre.
