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hip hop

GYM CLASS HEROES

The original Gym Class Heroes formed in 1997 when Travis "Schleprok" McCoy and drummer Matt McGinley became friends during physical education class while at high school in Geneva, New York, US and joined forces with guitarist Milo Bonacci and bassist Ryan Geise.

The original GCH began playing birthday parties, clubs, and festivals which eventually led to numerous larger venues throughout the northeast, including four years on Warped Tour (2003, 2004, 2006, 2008). During this time, GCH released four self-produced CDs: "Hed Candy" (1999), "Greasy Kids Stuff" (2000), "For the Kids" (2001) and "Papercut Chronicles EP" (2004).

"As cruel as School Children" was released on July 25, 2006. A second version of the album, released on November 4, 2006 additionally contains the single "Cupid's Chokehold"

After the release of "For the Kids", lead singer Travis McCoy won MTV's Direct Effect MC Battle and as a prize, he appeared in Styles P's video "Daddy Get That Cash".

The current configuration of GCH formed as guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo joined in late 2004, with bassist Eric Roberts joining in mid 2005.

After hearing the song "Taxi Driver", Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy invited the band to one of his shows. Gym Class Heroes then went on to join Pete Wentz's label, Decaydance Records, an imprint of Fueled by Ramen. Travis later said that Stump's support, coupled with the label's touring ethos and family atmosphere, led the band to signing with Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen.

Gym Class Heroes appeared on the Warped Tour in the summer of 2005 and 2006. The band completed their leg of a tour with The All-American Rejects on Nov. 29 in Las Vegas.

Their recent hit "Clothes Off" reached the No# 3 spot in the uk top 40 charts.

Lead singer Travis McCoy is currently working on a side project called Tequila Mockingbird with Nick Scimeca and is due out sometime early next year.

In mid-September 2008, Gym Class Heroes put out their album, "The Quilt". It was recorded during their late 2007 tour with Fall Out Boy and Plain White T's, "Young Wild Things". Soon after toured with Lil' Wayne on his "I Am Music" tour (late 2008).

The next album will be titled The Papercut Chronicles 2. The Stereo Hearts Songfacts reports that the first single from the album, "Stereo Hearts," features Maroon 5 frontman and The Voice coach Adam Levine on the chorus. It was released for download on iTunes on June 14, 2011 and also sent to all radio stations around the world the same day.

Travis McCoy is currently on a humanitarian trip across the globe to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS and how to prevent it. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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Lil' Kim

Kimberly Denise Jones (born July 11, 1975 in Brooklyn, New York), better known as Lil' Kim or Queen Bee, is a Grammy Award winning American rapper and actress signed to <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Jay-Z" class="bbcode_artist">Jay-Z</a>'s Roc Nation label. She is known for her sexually explicit lyrics and for being one of the most prominent female rap artists of her time. She began her career with <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Junior+M.A.F.I.A." class="bbcode_artist">Junior M.A.F.I.A.</a>, whose album Conspiracy generated three hit singles.

RJD2

RJD2 is Ramble John Krohn, a hip-hop producer. RJD2 was born in Eugene, Oregon, and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Until recently, he was part of the Definitive Jux label and produced tracks for many of its artists, as well as having a solo career. In 2006, RJ "ditched hip-hop" for the indie-rock label XL, releasing The Third Hand in March 2007. From 1998 to 1999, he saw success blossom as DJ/producer for the Columbus-based group the Megahertz, with two twelve-inch singles on Bobbito Garcia's legendary NY label, Fondle 'Em Records.

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Drake

Aubrey “Drake” Graham (born October 24, 1986 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Grammy award nominated Canadian actor, rapper and singer signed to Young Money/Universal Motown. Drake shot to global fame upon the release of his critically acclaimed 2009 mixtape So Far Gone and Best I Ever Had, a single from the mixtape which peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Drake's music career began in 2006 with the release of his debut mixtape Room For Improvement.

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Nicki Minaj

Onika Tanya Maraj (born December 8, 1984 in Trinidad and Tobago but now lives in New York City, New York, United States), better known by her stage name Nicki Minaj, is a Trinidadian-American, rapper and singer-songwriter signed to a joint venture between Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment and Universal Motown. After releasing several mixtapes and building substantial buzz online her debut album, Pink Friday, was released on November 22, 2010. In October 2010, Minaj became the first female rapper to have seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

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Jay Park

Jay Park (박재범; born April 25, 1987) is an American hip hop recording artist, dancer, record producer, model, choreographer, entrepreneur and actor. In his early high school years, he joined the local b-boy crew, Art of Movement (AOM). It wasn't until 2004 when he auditioned for JYP Entertainment that he caught the eye of Park Jinyoung and was brought to Korea to receive further training in dancing, rapping, singing, and the Korean language.

Park first appeared through MNET's Hot Blood, a documentary-style reality program that showed the future members of idol groups 2AM and 2PM in training, with Park finishing at the top spot with the most fan votes, and as 2PM's leader. On September 4, 2008, 2PM debuted with their song “10 Point Out of 10 Points” (10점 만점에 10점) on music program M! Countdown after the release of their first mini-album Hottest Time of the Day a few days prior. However, it was their promotions for “Again and Again” that catapulted the group’s status in Korean music, and earned them first place awards for a capped 3 successive weeks in music programs, SBS’s Inkigayo and Mnet’s M! Countdown in May of 2009.

On September 4, 2009, unfavorable comments towards Korea were found on Park’s personal Myspace account from 2005. The comments, written in English to a friend, were misinterpreted and mistranslated by Korean media, quickly spreading across hundreds of news articles. In what has been termed a show of “explosive nationalism”, netizens displayed overwhelming rage over the posts with many demanding for his expulsion from Korea and a petition signed by three thousand calling for his suicide. Park expressed deep remorse and shame over his past, forgotten words and issued an official apology. Despite this, on February 25, 2010, JYPE announced that they had permanently terminated Park’s contract with collective agreement among the other 6 members of 2PM.

On March 15, 2010, Park created his own YouTube channel, where he decided to revitalize his career and began uploading cover songs for his fans and officially marked his return to music after a long hiatus.

Since then, he has gone solo and has had activities both in America and South Korea, and has a mixtape and four studio albums; the latest being "Worldwide". His most recent single is "The Truth Is".

Jay Park has also starred in the movie "Hype Nation" and "Mr. Idol". Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

MF DOOM

Daniel Dumile ("doom-uh-lay") is a British born American hip-hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most famously MF DOOM (standing for metal fingers/metal face doom). He has also been known as Zev Love X, King Geedorah, Metal Fingers, Viktor Vaughn, DOOM, and has appeared in several collaborative projects such as DANGERDOOM (with Danger Mouse) and Madvillain (with Madlib). Little is known about his personal life though he did reveal in a 2006 interview on his MySpace page that he is married with two children, one of them teenage.

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Xzibit

Alvin Nathaniel Joiner (born September 18, 1974 in Detroit, Michigan), better known by his stage name Xzibit, is an American rapper, actor, and host of MTV's Pimp My Ride. He began his music career as a member of the Likwit Crew, a loose collective of West Coast rappers including King Tee, Defari, and Tha Alkaholiks. He released his solo debut album 'At The Speed Of Life' in 1996 and has since released 5 more albums, his latest being Full Circle, released in 2006. His new album MMX is expected to be released sometime in 2011.

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Brad Strut

Brad Strut is an MC from Melbourne, Australia. He made his name through radio appearances in the early 90s and appeared on early releases from Bias B, Trem and Boney Stoney (Bias B and Brothers Stoney). His debut album "The Authentic" was released in 2001, after which he went on to form the Lyrical Commission with Trem and Bob Balans. LC released their debut "The Stage is Set" in 2002 and followed it up with the "Murderous Metaphors" EP in 2004.

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Das Racist

Das Racist is a hip hop group, formed in 2008 and based in Brooklyn, New York, comprised of Queens-born Himanshu Suri and San Francisco-born Victor Vazquez. Suri and Vazquez met in 2003 at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where Victor was Himanshu's resident advisor in a "Students of Color for Social Justice" theme dormitory. Suri was a member of the Eclectic Society and is also an alumnus of School of Oriental and African Studies.

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