Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie/Travis McCoy has insisted he hasn't gone solo forever (see, he's "Travie" when he's by himself, but back to regular old "Travis" with the band). Still, his solo work, which he's currently promoting through a tour with Cobra Starship and 3OH!3, may soon eclipse his output with the Heroes. It's thanks, in part, to slightly greater crossover potential amplified by some shrewd marketing and label positioning.
As Travie, McCoy is signed to T-Pain's Nappy Boy Entertainment label, and seems to be increasingly pushing the hip-hop influence in his music. As further proof, here's the new video for "The Manual," the latest single off his solo debut album, Lazarus. The song got a very hip-hop style debut, as a track on the recent Nappy Boy All Stars mixtape, and the video has a similarly group-effort feel.
Directed by Bla G and Marlon P, the video was shot in Miami, McCoy's adopted second home (he lives at least part of the year in Aventura). Hit the jump to watch it.
Serious rap-industry-watchers can count cameos from a bunch of McCoy's Nappy Boy labelmates. These include fellow Florida residents Young Cash (Jacksonville) and Tay Dizm (Gainesville), as well as Bishop Jones, DJ Crazybaby, One Chance, Javier, and Sophia Fresh.
The clip skips the usual Miami tropes of sand and ass in favor of a hospital-theme narrative that features T-Pain himself um, eating a heart with his hands. He gets some table-manners points for trying to slice it with a knife first.
