Gym Class Heroes is a Rap Rock band from New York. They formed in 1997, and have released several successful albums. Some of their more popular songs are “Cupid's Chokehold”, “Clothes Off!”, “Stereo Hearts”, and “Ass Back Home”. The current line-up consists of Travie McCoy (vocals), Matt McGinley (drums), Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo (guitar), and Eric Roberts (bass).
The band is, officially, still together, and not broken up or on hiatus. However, all of the members are currently working on solo stuff, and there's no word on when Gym Class is going to come back. Not to worry, though, they've done this before - between their 2008 and 2011 albums, when they also did side projects and pursued solo careers. During that time, frontman Travie McCoy recorded and released a solo album called “Lazarus”, which did pretty well. Currently, it seems like he has a second solo album coming up, though it's not yet known when exactly.
They were often grouped as part of the "Fueled By Five" (five bands from their label, Fueled by Ramen), which also includes Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, The Academy Is..., and Cobra Starship.
Disography:
- ...For the Kids (2001)
- The Papercut Chronicles (2005)
- As Cruel As School Children (2006)
- The Quilt (2008)
- The Papercut Chronicles II (2011)
Tropes
- Album Title Drop: As Cruel As School Children comes from a line off of the song “Scandalous Scholastics”.
- Bookends: Both The Papercut Chronicles and The Papercut Chroicles II start and end with a Cloudcuckoolander electronic voice doing rather strange intro and outro narrations.
- Cloudcuckoolander: The voice that provides the opening and closing narration for both Papercuts albums has a tendency to ramble off topic and make weird comments about whatever's on their mind. The monotone, robotic sound of it doesn't help.Hey, have you ever wondered if a seahorse could win in a game of backgammon against an invisible wizard. I think the invisible wizard would win because the seahorse does not have hands. Hey, have you ever seen an invisible wizard. Probably not. Because it's invisible. Hey, remember that time when we were on that spaceship and there were talking dinosaurs and then one of the dinosaurs said, “I cannot talk,” and I said, “You just did,” and the dinosaur didn't say anything else because he couldn't talk. Hey, are you listening to me.
- Fight Fur Your Right to Party: The music video for “Clothes Off!” has a group of guys in fur suits, features a dance-off between them and another group, and ends by revealing them to be Panic! at the Disco.
- Iconic Item: Travie's toothbrush can be seen in several music videos, such as “Cupid's Chokehold”
, “The Queen And I”, and “Stereo Hearts”, just to name a few. - Kids Are Cruel: Their third album is called As Cruel As School Children. There are also many songs that are explicitly about this subject, from that album as well as their other ones - “Faces in the Hall” is one such example. It's very likely most of it was written from personal experience, as Travie's said that he has been bullied as a kid.
- Lampshade Hanging: The weird narrator at the beginning of The Papercut Chronicles (as well as the end of the album and the sequel album) seems to be at least a little bit aware of its own weirdness and tendency to go off-topic....And this, my friend, does not make any sense whatsoever, or does it, no it does not.
- "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: “Kid Nothing And The Never-Ending Naked Nightmare”
- Rap Rock
- Robotic Spouse: The first video for "Cupid's Chokehold". Travie is a factory worker who brings one home and she showers him with affection and food...until one day she starts to malfunction and displays increasingly disturbing behavior. He ultimately abandons her in a ditch and runs away. She's rescued by an equally robotic Patrick Stump and the two disappear into the night.
- Rock Star Song: “7 Weeks”
- Sequel Song: Well, sequel album: The Papercut Chronicles II is a sequel to, well, The Papercut Chronicles. In addition, the song “Kid Nothing And The Never-Ending Naked Nightmare” off of the second Papercuts album can be seen as a sequel to “Nothing Boy Vs The Echo Factor” off of the first one. “Wejusfreestylin'” and “Wejustfreestylin Pt. 2” off the first and second albums respectively also count, and are both exactly what you think they are. And, throughout As Cruel As School Children, there are three tracks called “Sloppy Love Jingle, Pt. 1”, “Sloppy Love Jingle, Pt. 2”, and “Sloppy Love Jingle, Pt. 3”, which form a single continuous story when listened together.
- Sexiness Score: The song "Cupid's Chokehold" has the singer refer to his girlfriend as a "10".She's got porcelain skin, of course she's a ten
- Song of Song Titles: “Taxi Cab” is chock-full of Shout Outs to other contemporary bands such as Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Death Cab for Cutie, Jimmy Eat World, and many more, as well as the record lab
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: In Travie's song “Don't Pretend”.But I guess that's what friends are for
The only word that comes to mind is that you're nothing but a little... brat
