I feel like a lot of people in the hip hop world don't take me seriously as a rapper, and I feel that first-and-foremost I came up as a rapper before I started singing. All a lot of people know from me is 'Cupid's Chokehold,' and they don't scratch the surface and see beyond that dude who sings the song about his girlfriend.

Travie McCoy

Categorized in : Me People Song Singing

People ridicule you for the silliest thing, like what you wore to an event. At the end of the day, I'm just being me - if that's not good enough for you, tell me what is. Usually people don't have an answer.

Travie McCoy

not-good-enough the-end-of-the-day people

When the fishbowl gets too small, it's time to pack up and leave and jump into the lake or ocean.

Travie McCoy

packs ocean lakes

I'd like to be remembered as someone that lived life by his own rules with no regrets.

Travie McCoy

remembered no-regrets regret

When I was playing junior football when I was a kid, we were the Geneva Giants, so it was kind of embedded in me to be a Giants fan.

Travie McCoy

fans football kids

A pound of Alaskan king crab legs and buffalo shrimp = happy Travie.

Travie McCoy

shrimp legs kings

DJ Sliink is amazing, and his production is on the next level. There are a lot of EDM producers that Id like to work with, not for the sake of having an engineered record, but for the fact that I love their production and music.

Travie McCoy

edm next-level records

Since the inception of Gym Class in 1997, every member has had another musical outlet, if not three or four.

Travie McCoy

musical three class

A lot of underground hip-hop will inspire me as far as rhyme patterns - really wordy, intelligent lyrics.

Travie McCoy

hip-hop intelligent inspire

I'm not a big bulky jewelry dude.

Travie McCoy

dude big jewelry

Anyone who takes the craft of songwriting seriously I radiate towards. Spending time with Daryl Hall was a dream come true. I picked his brain a lot because Hall And Oats is timeless.

Travie McCoy

spending-time dream brain time

We didn't want to worry about the formula that has been implanted into our brains - this verse/pre-chorus/chorus format. When we were writing 'The Papercut Chronicles,' we had no idea about any of that. We didn't know how to count bars or how to write what's considered a well-formatted pop song.

Travie McCoy

know worry writing song

Albums take a lot out of you.

Travie McCoy

lot out take you

I took vocal lessons for the first time and actually learned a lot about using my voice as an instrument as opposed to just doing what I've always done and going by feeling. I'm still doing that, but I've learned a lot of tricks and how to manipulate and play with my voice a little bit.

Travie McCoy

doing feeling voice time

I think anything we do outside of Gym Class Heroes still falls under the Gym Class Heroes umbrella. There's really no method to the madness. With Gym Class, it's more of a democratic process, and when I'm working on solo stuff, it's just me, either working with producers or sitting in a room by myself. They balance and complement each other.

Travie McCoy

myself me gym balance

The first record we put out on Fueled by Ramon, 'The Papercut Chronicles,' we had no idea what the term 'producer' meant. It was just us writing songs, and we are trying to go back to that - singing in a room and vibing off each other.

Travie McCoy

back go singing writing

I think it's hard to put a finger on my music. My music has always been an amalgamation of everything I listen to, which includes everything and anything under the sun. Hip-hop to country to R&B to pop, all the things I'm inspired by find a way into what I do.

Travie McCoy

think music sun way

I've been producing since the early stages of Gym Class Heroes. A lot of the songs on the first 'Papercut Chronicles' were actually beats that I made.

Travie McCoy

heroes first gym class

I'm on tour all the time, so I stop at thrift shops. The minute we hit a town, I'll have my assistant Googling thrift stores. I have him go check beforehand; then we go there.

Travie McCoy

minute stop go time

Pain is definitely a genius in his own right. 'Thr33 Ringz' is definitely one of my top 10 albums. It's one of those albums you listen to front-to-back.

Travie McCoy

own you pain genius

No one in my circle calls me 'Travis.' Even my family, at a young age started calling me 'Travie.' So I want people to feel comfortable calling me 'Travie.' It's almost like inviting people in.

Travie McCoy

me family age people