Moments before emo hip-hopster Travie McCoy was set to hit the stage at New York’s legendary S.O.B.’s, the tattoo-laden “Billionaire” star was busy holding court with the brass at rolling out. Visibly exhausted from a whirlwind travel schedule that found him touching all parts of the globe, McCoy was enjoying the solace found in the quiet time directly following his sound check. In less than two hours, he would once again be asked to summon the energy required to wow the standing room only crowd that would be jamming into the venue for the NYC leg of the Hennessy Artistry Tour. So he was eager to relax — and enjoy a rare opportunity to kick up his feet and breathe.
Throughout our time spent with the Gym Class Heroes frontman, the monumental strides taken by McCoy over the years were readily evident. From his current hit maker status, to his persistent battle to overcome an addiction to opiates, McCoy’s journey spoke to the undeniable power of diligence. His story was one of both resilience and triumph, and one that we were fortunate to learn about, and ultimately share.
People all over the world seem to be enjoying your solo debut, Lazarus. Did you expect this type of solo success?
I think after we finished the album, and had the listening party down at Atlantic, that’s when we began to see that we were on to something special. We saw everyone taking it in and really giving positive feedback. That feedback was similar to what I was getting while recording the album down at the Hit Factory in Miami. Cats like Lil Wayne were all there recording, and I would run downstairs and have the engineer play it for them and gauge how people were vibing to the music. It was cool to have talent like that being productive on their projects while I was working on mine. It’s good to get that type of feedback from those people, and I think it helped my project.
