The Gym Class Heroes frontman goes right for it with his new single “We’ll Be Alright”, looking to create a kind of “I Gotta Feeling” type anthem. Is this a potentially huge track that will be played out at sports arenas over the next year, or a complete flop?

The Gym Class Money Billionaire returns with another video from Lazarus. Is this his “I Gotta Feeling”?

Em delivers a performance, featuring Rihanna. Can you guess which two songs?

Travie gets down with Deadmau5 on the 1 & 2.

..Aaaaaand here’s Taylor Swift’s response to last year’s Kanye-incident. Seems like she forgives him, but there’s a condescending subtext to this that probably doens’t make Yeezy feel to great.

Drake grabs Mary J. Blige and Swizz Beatz for his performance of “Fancy”. No T.I. verses, but new lyrics from Mary, plus the lovely 40 breakdown.

B.o.B. and Paramore share the stage for a three song set.

Mr. West gets down on the MPC, performing a new song, “Runaway”, with bonus verse from Pusha T.

And here comes Travie Claus with the Party Rock remix of “Billionaire”. New verses from LMFAO and a more southern styled track finally make this one club playable.

LISTEN: Travie McCoy – “Billionaire (Party Rock Remix)” (feat. LMFAO + Gucci Mane)

The Roots back Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars’ performance of “Billionaire” on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Travie returns with a new remix to his smash single, “Billionaire”, now retooled for the urban market with guest appearances from T-Pain and Gucci Mane.

LISTEN: Billionaire (Nappy Boy Remix feat. Gucci Mane, T-Pain & Bruno Mars)

Lazarus is the debut from Gym Class Heroes frontman, Travie McCoy, who looks to build a name for himself as a solo artist after a public breakup with Katy Perry. Experimenting with rap-rock fusion on his earlier material, Lazarus – along with it’s popular lead single “Billionaire” (feat. Bruno Mars) – takes it even a step further, solidifying his status a rapping pop-rock star.

There are moments on Lazarus where Travie McCoy gets it exactly right. The album opener, “Dr. Feel Good”, features a hook belted out by Cee-Lo Green, over a well produced track by the Smeezingtons. Also winning is “Superbad”, which doesn’t attempt to be cute or quirky, it’s just a well-written, straight-forward rock track. Even his cover of “Back In The Day”, retitled “A Kid Again”, which ironically finds him reminiscing on Ahmad’s original era, remembering G.I. Joe action figures and Wu-Tang summers.

However other times, he misses the mark. There’s a strange amount of Beach Boy channeling on the happy-go-lucky “After Midnight (It’ll Burn)” and “We’ll Be Alright”, two blatant crossover tracks that aim straight for the teeny-boppers, throwing a little extra profanity in an attempt to remain “edgy”. It’s unclear if he was trying to create another “I Gotta Feeling” here, but in either case, the end result is not spectacular.

Perhaps that is the main problem with Lazarus. It comes off as an album by someone that clearly wants celebrity, and will do anything to get it, mainly crafting an album of different styles and sounds better executed by people like N.E.R.D., Gnarls Barkley, Linkin Park, Sublime, and the aforementioned Beach Boys. He’s got the right people helping him achieve this, but leaves the listener wondering what kind of music Travie would make all by himself.

]]> http://www.hiphopsite.com/2010/06/11/travie-mccoy-lazarus-review-sticky/feed/ 0 http://www.hiphopsite.com/2010/06/11/travie-mccoy-the-manual-feat-t-pain-young-cash-video/ http://www.hiphopsite.com/2010/06/11/travie-mccoy-the-manual-feat-t-pain-young-cash-video/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:52:17 +0000 http://www.hiphopsite.com/?p=17565

Taken from Travie’s Lazarus, in stores now. Directed by Bla. Album review coming later today.

Rhymefest – El Che - Fest’s long overdue magnum opus is finally here, with one of the freshest promotional offers we’ve seen in a long time, courtesy of Dangerous Negro. While they were offering the “Revolutionary Package”, which is now sold out, what’s still left is the extra fresh “Red Tape” and “Clear Prison Tape” offers. Basically, you can order the album on a limited edition red or transparent cassette tape and get an instant digital download of the album when you place your order. Nobody can fuck with this. Verdict: Dangerous Negro

Lil’ Jon – Crunk Rock – Nobody really has any special editions or free bonus items when you purchase Jon’s Crunk Rock, however the label has offered regular and deluxe editions of the album, both available everywhere. The deluxe edition comes with a hefty price tag, so go with Amazon to get the most “WHUT!” for your buck: $14.99 for deluxe CD, $11.99 deluxe digital. Verdict: Amazon

Plies – Goon Affiliated – If you’re going to grab a physical CD of Plies’ Goon Affiliated, do what Plies would want you to do, and put on a ski-mask and steal it from any local corporate entity. You can do that digitally too, but without the ski-mask. If you want to play by the rules, head to either Amazon or Itunes, both of whom are offering deluxe digital 19 track editions of the album – that’s four extra songs not included on the disc based versions. Itunes is charging three dollars more than Amazon, but justifies this by including two digital videos. But we say fuck the videos – there’s YouTube. Verdict: Amazon

Travie McCoy – Lazarus – The Gym Class Heroes frontman serves up a handful of offers for his solo debut, Lazarus, with pretty much all of them good. Itunes has a deluxe edition of the album for $11.99, which includes two bonus tracks, “Ms. Tattoo Girl” and “She Did It”, as well as the video for “Billionaire”. Target – whom is usually in bed with Itunes on these types of things – has a $12.98 Deluxe Edition CD/DVD of the album, including an exclusive documentary. We’re guessing this includes the bonus tracks as well. Meanwhile, Fueled By Ramen serves up the standalone CD – no bonus tracks – but offers a $24.00 package with T-Shirt in any size. Verdict: Three-Way-Tie

Reef The Lost Cauze vs. Guns-N-Butter – Fight Music You can order Reef’s latest direct from his label, Enemy Soil Records, in a special deluxe T-Shirt package, along with a free poster and sticker for $24.98. This deal is slated to end today, but is still available at “press” time. Verdict: Enemy Soil

One more new track from Travie McCoy, this time with Colin Munroe and Travis Barker. The solo album Lazarus hits stores June 8th. Production on this one from Chad Beatz and Travis Barker.

Travie McCoy + Colin Munroe + Travis Barker – “Don’t Pretend” (MP3)

Gym Class frontman delivers his second single from Lazarus, sampling Supergrass’ “Alright”, produced by The Smeezingtons & The Stereotypes.

First single from the Gym Class Heroes frontman gets the video treatment, with hook by Bruno Mars of “Nothin’ On You” fame. Travie’s Lazarus in stores June 8th, Bruno Mars’ It’s Better If You Don’t Understand EP hitting May 11th.

Gym Class Heroes lead further elaborates on upcoming projects, namely his Forgetting Katy Perry mixtape, not to mention his solo album Lazurus, hitting June 8th.

In the above clip, despite his potential “Billionaire” status, Travie McCoy suggests that Gym Class Heroes has not broken up, and his solo album, Lazarus, is merely one of many side projects he’s working on – which also include Blood Pony with “(his) homeboy L P” (this El-P? or that “LP”) and The Goonies with 9th Wonder…. He also name drops Gym Class Heroes next album, PCC2.

Do you like autotune? Do you like tattoos? Do you like eternity? How about acoustic guitar driven hip-hop beats? Then have we got the thing for you…. Bask in the electric light of Super Producer / Songwriter Detail (Ray J “Sexy Can I”, Akon “I’m So Paid”) with his first single, “Tattoo Foreva”, taken from the debut album to be released on KrazyBox / Universal Republic. The track features T-Wayne and Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes. Tattoo is foreva, motherfucka!