MTV Buzzworthy Blog › Travis McCoy

Featured in our Fall Music Preview, Gym Class Heroes' forthcoming album, The Papercut Chronicles II, is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated albums of the fall. Perhaps it's because Gym Class die-hards freaked a little when Travie McCoy went solo or because the album's lead single “Stereo Hearts" features the smooth-ass vocals of Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, but whatever the reason, the buzz surrounding GCH's forthcoming disc is unmistakable.

Now Gym Class Heroes' new jam "Martyrial Girl$" is taking us in a different direction. Sonically, "Martyrial Girl$" is harsher than the sugary sweet vibe of "Stereo Hearts" as it features the gritty guitars and grimy filters to create the punk-rock sound GCH was originally known for, boding well for the rest of the album. In Travie's own words, "It's definitely a well-rounded album. It's not just a few singles here or there and some filler. It's got some reoccurring themes from the first Papercut Chronicles, musically and lyrically." Per its title, "Martyrial Girl$" speaks to materialism and how uncomfortable it makes Travie: "Cause I'd rather be sedated/Than conversate about whose sneakers are more outrageous/Or whose outfit's the latest."

We know you're not into expensive designer duds, Trav, but considering your album's lead single "Stereo Hearts" has already sold a million copies, you could, if you wanted to, buy me the new Chanel bag yourself some dope new threads. Just a suggestion!

+ Listen to Gym Class Heroes' "Martyrial Girl$."

Related Content Gym Class Heroes Are Nominated For O Music Awards: Best Lyric Video, Follow Buzzworthy On Twitter

Tags Gym Class Heroes, Travis McCoy

(Credit: Michele Crowe/MTV)

This week's MTV PUSH Artist of the Week is Travie McCoy. Travie's a Gym Class Hero, and with hits like "Billionaire," he's got a  a burgeoning solo career. Everything is falling into place for the guy. But despite all the accolades and momentum, McCoy is missing one thing: the game to kick to Lady Gaga.

In this interview clip, we ask Travie what he'd say to Gaga if he had a chance. Now, you'd think someone who counts Katy Perry as an ex and has a back catalog full of flirtatious jams would not have a problem coming up with some charming banter.

Well, according to McCoy, he finds Lady Gaga "really attractive." So much so that he'd "geek up and wouldn't say anything." McCoy muses on this hypothetical meeting between he and Gaga and comes to the conclusion that it wouldn't really work. Too bad. She's single!

Check out the interview below and by all means, check out our behind the scenes look at Travie's "Billionaire" vid, here.

Related Content Is Gaga's 'Alejandro' The New 'Vogue'?

Tags Gym Class Heroes, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, PUSH, PUSH: Travie McCoy, Travis McCoy, video

(Credit: Michele Crowe/MTV)

Eye spy with our little eyes: something Travie!!

We've been seeing a lot of Travie McCoy around MTV lately, and we couldn't be more thrilled. To celebrate his reign as MTV's PUSH Artist Of The Week, Travie invited us into his world for a behind-the-scenes look at his video for "Billionaire," featuring Bruno Mars, and managed to find a couple spare minutes to mug for our cameras. Plus, he didn't even ask us to take our "Clothes Off" first.

Score!

To see what it was like on the sun-soaked set of Travie McCoy's video for "Billionaire," check out the video below. (We've also included the finished product just because we like you!) After you get rich on those clips, check out an exclusive photo flipbook of the Gym Class Heroes frontman.

Be sure to watch Travie wax poetic on everything from his inspiration, his favorite movie to watch on tour, his thoughts on side projects and the difference between "Travie" and Travis McCoy by checking out the exclusive video interviews after the jump!

+ Watch more Travie videos after the jump!
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Tags Bruno Mars, Gym Class Heroes, PUSH, PUSH: Travie McCoy, Travie McCoy, Travis McCoy

This week's MTV PUSH Artist of the Week is Travie McCoy. You probably know Travie best as "Travis," or the guy who fronts the boys-gone-wild band known as Gym Class Heroes. You know him as a master collaborator, or a do-gooder (he's an ambassador to the MTV Staying Alive Foundation and released the song "One At A Time" on World AIDS Day). But recently, Travie has been making a name for himself as himself.

Travis McCoy is striking out on his own with his solo debut, Lazarus, out June 8. Whether it's songs like the ska-pop-infused "Billionaire," or the hauntingly Auto-Tuned rock jam "Superbad (11:34)," Travie's solo material maintains Gym Class Heroes' genre-hopping eclecticism with a no-man-is-an-island dose of introspection. With an intimate bent, Lazarus reflects a more personal, man-in-the-mirror look at the artist as young man. At his core, this is the real McCoy.

Watch an acoustic version of Travie McCoy's single, "Billionaire," featuring Bruno Mars, see why Travie's bringing a "shiny, happy vibe" back to hip-hop and get a cinematic look at the life of Travie McCoy.

Tags Gym Class Heroes, PUSH, PUSH: Travie McCoy, Travis McCoy, video

As a public service, we thought you'd bring you these exclusive live clips of Cobra Starship rocking Kent State University, home of the Golden Flashes.

Cobra Starship's been on the road for the last few weeks, along with its like-minded amigos 3OH!3 and Travie McCoy, performing on the Too Fast For Love tour. And in these performance videos fresh off the tour, we get to see Gabe Saporta and his squad run through two crowd faves: "Good Girls Go Bad" and "Hot Mess."

Two immediate reads on these Cobra clips: 1.) Live, Cobra spit some kind of rocking venom; as they develop as a band they might be getting shinier and more pop, but they can still throw down live. 2) These songs are obviously anthems for those in attendance, as the sea of Kent Staters really seem to lose themselves in the moment.

Check out "Hot Mess" and "Good Girls Go Bad" from the Too Fast For Love tour.

Tags 3OH!3, Cobra Starship, Travis McCoy, video

With "Starstrukk," an homage to Daisy Dukes, and the spectacularly NSFW track, "House Party," 3OH!3 might not strike you as the most spiritual of musical acts. But one look at this exclusive Buzzworthy video, taken while the band tours the nation on the Too Fast For Love lineup (along with Cobra Starship and Travie McCoy), and you might re-evaluate your entire belief system.

We caught up with the duo at The Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The vibes at this empty venue shift from holy to juvenile as the boys do a little Gregorian chanting and then engage in some nipple-embracing graffiti. Don't worry -- by the looks of it, The Rave is a tag-happy zone.

The band then hikes to the tallest peak in Milwaukee (which seems, suspiciously, to be on top of the venue) and takes in the Midwestern vista. You can catch 3OH!3 in the following cities, on the following dates on the Too Fast For Love tour.  Select dates from this tour will also be mtvU Movies and Music Festival dates leading up to the big show airing June 6 at 9/8c on MTV.
5/7 Rochester, NY – Rochester Institute of Technology
5/8 Danbury, CT – West Conn
5/14 Columbus, OH – Ohio State

Check out the video and the band's "Starstrukk" video below.

Tags 3OH!3, Cobra Starship, Travis McCoy, video

Travie McCoy, the frontman for Gym Class Heroes and now solo artist, is a busy dude. He's readying his new album, Lazarus, for a June 8 release; he's got an underground single with Ke$ha ("Want U Bad") and a real one, "Billionaire" with Bruno Mars, pinging around the solar system. Plus, he's preparing to head out on his Too Fast For Love tour with Cobra Starship and 3Oh!3.

So with all that in mind we thought it would be best to sit down with Travie and have him give us the lay of what's going on in Travieland, as it were. In the below interview clips you'll hear all about the sound of Lazarus and meaning behind the album title. But most importantly, McCoy discusses his infatuation with the '80s pop-soul duo, Hall & Oates.

Dude really likes Hall & Oates. Like, he has the Private Eyes album cover tattooed on his hands. That's dedication.

Check out our brand-new interviews with Travie McCoy below. And get tickets to the Too Fast For Love tour. Select dates from this tour will also be mtvU Movies and Music Festival dates leading up to the big show airing June 6 at 9/8c on MTV.

Related Content Get Too Fast For Love Tour Tickets And Dates

Tags 3OH!3, Cobra Starship, Gym Class Heroes, Ke$ha, Travis McCoy, video

Travie McCoy has gone from going by the name Travis and making backpacker/punk jams with Gym Class Heroes to going by "Travie" and making tongue-in-cheek pop on his own. The latest product of his solo venture? Glad you asked; it's "Want U Bad"

With a stomping, glam rock beat, Travis brings Ke$ha into the fold for an auto-tuned, sing-along chorus ("I love the crazy things you do/Because tonight's the night for me to play the fool").

The track (spotted at Idolator) is a raw, lusty anthem. Given the flirtation and boy-girl interplay of the track, we can't wait to see how Ke$ha and Travie interact in a video. Lord knows he owes his ex, Katy Perry, a case of jealousy after that 3Oh!3 video she did ("Starstrukk").

+ Listen to Travie McCoy, featuring Ke$ha, "Want U Bad."

Tags 3OH!3, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Song You Need To Know, Travis McCoy

Last we heard from Travis McCoy (or, as he's now known, Travie McCoy), he was sticking his hands in the "Cookie Jar" on Gym Class Heroes's 2008 album The Quilt. When MTV News caught up with hip-hop frontman late last year, he mentioned good news and bad news: First, fans are going to have to wait a little longer for a new Gym Class album for a little while. (Sad.) Second, a Travie McCoy solo joint is well in the works. (Happy!)

OK, it's more than in the works. We're pleased to present "Billionaire," the first single off Travie's upcoming solo album called Lazarus. The song, featuring Bruno Mars, has a sort of laid-back, island feel to it. Think Sublime meets Common meets Jason Mraz. The lyrics, on the other hand, rattle off a laundry list of wishes for Travie if — nay, when — he becomes a billionaire, including becoming besties with Oprah and appearing on the cover of Forbes.

To see Travie perform the song live, check him out on MTV's Movies & Music Festival dates with Cobra Starship and 3OH!3.

Too Fast For Love tour with Cobra Starship, 3OH!3, Travie McCoy & The Lazarus Project

4/29/10 Kent, OH - Kent State

5/7/10 Rochester, NY - Gordon Field House RIT

5/8/10 Danbury, CT - Charles Ives Center For The Arts

5/9/10 Boston, MA - House Of Blues

For a complete list of tour dates, zoom over to Cobra Starship's Web Site.

In the meantime, take a listen to "Billionaire" featuring Bruno Mars below. The single will be available March 9 on Travie McCoy's blog.

Tags 3OH!3, Bruno Mars, Buzzworthy Song Premiere, Cobra Starship, Common, Gym Class Heroes, Jason Mraz, Oprah, Sublime, Travie McCoy, Travis McCoy

+ Travis McCoy's solo album, Lazarus, was apparently born out of his tumultuous breakup with Katy Perry. Though the music started out dark, it has since taken on a more upbeat, optimistic perspective. The first single from the Gym Class Heroes frontman's solo slab, Billionaire, is due out today. Watch this spot! (MTV News)

+ Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood will lend his film-scoring skills to the movie adaptation of novelist Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. Greenwood is becoming something of a soundtrack pro, seeing that he already contributed soundscapes to Paul Thomas Anderson's gripping film There Will Be Blood. (Spinner)

+ The ever-growing empire of Beyoncé keeps on expanding, as the married "Single Ladies" singer recently opened the Beyoncé Cosmetology Center at the Phoenix House Career Center in Brooklyn, New York. It's B's way of giving back; she visited the Phoenix House while prepping for the role of Etta James in the film Cadillac Records. (Rap-Up)

+ For the person in your life who really, really wants to dress like a Cheerio, get ready: Glee creator Ryan Murphy is coming out with the musical TV show's very own fashion line. You totally thought we were referring to the cereal, didn't you? (Limelife)

+ Finally, we can think of no better way for you to start your week than by watching these incredibly cute fifth graders from the PS22 public school in New York City sing Phoenix's "Lisztomania." You're welcome. (The Daily What)

Tags Beyonce, Glee, Gym Class Heroes, Jonny Greenwood, Katy Perry, Radiohead, Travis McCoy