Patches of the Quilt
Travis "Schleprok" McCoy fronts Gym Class Heroes with his adorable, boyish charm and charisma. The wide eyed, stony tattoo fiend doesn’t mind looking stupid for the camera. He makes stupid look cool. He pulls faces and gimmicks through his video clips and raps out smooth, sharp lyrics with charisma and a soft core attitude that makes him irresistible. Gym Class Heroes recently released their first major album, The Quilt. It’s a wonderful hip-hop/indie blend with sweet, hypnotic jazz backbeats, snappy guitar rhythms and lyrics that are just too good to be true.
They’re well known for their recent single Cookie Jar, featuring The-Dream’s slick chorus and McCoy rapping out smooth bombastic versus like a pro. He’s a ‘beast for those treats,’ going to Cookies Anonymous, spending time in a straight jacket and eventually dipping his hand in the cookie jar one last time with his beautiful, dusky skinned therapist. And then there’s the ingenious Clothes Off in which McCoy claims the object of his affections has him flashing his keys, “and he don’t even own a car”. It’s a blatant spin off of every single In The Club carbon copy, with McCoy fully dressed in a room full of beautiful dancing women in bikinis, throwing braziers over his head and having good old fashioned naked fun. In the middle of the track we’re treated to a slamming guitar solo by lead guitar man Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo. They really hit the spot with this song. Everyone loves a satire and McCoy’s puppy dog eyes and ridiculous expressions make it all the more hilarious.
McCoy’s girlfriend, the Princess of Sexual Confusion, Katy Perry, stars alongside him in the video for Cupid’s Chokehold, featuring Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy. The song is sardonic, as most of them are, giving a lovable, ironic and good humored atmosphere to the albums, videos and performances. They met in gym class, formed the band at a party, use live instruments while recording and have the freshest sound in hip-hop today. They are the heroes of the indie music scene.
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