Cupid's Chokehold
"Take a look at my girlfriend" — a hook borrowed from Supertramp, sung by Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump, rapped around by Travie McCoy. "Cupid's Chokehold" shouldn't have worked, and then it was everywhere in 2007.
The song built its foundation on Supertramp's 1979 hit "Breakfast in America," written by Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies — the "take a look at my girlfriend" hook is lifted straight from it, giving the track instant recognition and a strange cross-generational charm rap-rock didn't always manage. Travie McCoy handled the verses as Gym Class Heroes' MC and primary lyricist, while Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy came in as the featured artist singing that chorus.
The song first appeared on 2005's "The Papercut Chronicles," but the version everyone remembers was re-recorded for "As Cruel as School Children," which was re-released on November 4, 2006, with the song added. That re-release exploded: No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007, No. 1 on Mainstream Top 40 radio, and eventually 5× platinum. Released through Decaydance and Fueled by Ramen, it lived on MySpace profiles and radio countdowns simultaneously in 2006–2007 — a rap group on a pop-punk label with a soft-rock hook, the exact weird middle ground of mid-2000s taste, and a crossover moment nobody has quite recreated since.
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