Gym Class Heroes

Travis McCoy and Matt McKinley initially became friends at gym classes at their local high school in Geneva, New York and decided to use their meeting point as the name of the band they formed together in 1997. Forging their own alternative approach to hip hop by mixing it with rock, R&B and funk using live instruments in preference to samples, Gym Class Heroes gradually built a following in New York. Travis McCoy appeared in Styles P's video Daddy Get That Cash after winning an MC competition on MTV show Direct Effect and later appeared in various music videos with Fall Out Boy as Gym Class Heroes continued to flourish with the albums ...For The Kids (2002), The Papercut Chronicles (2005) and As Cruel As Schoolchildren (2006). Along the way, guitarist Milo Bonacci and bassist Ryan Giese were replaced by Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo and Eric Roberts, but Gym Class Heroes marched on and 2008 album The Quilt included guest appearances from Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes and Daryl Hall.