How do
you thrive in the shadow,
substantial and arena-sized,
of a group that has sold
over 35 million albums?
If you're Mike Shinoda of
Linkin Park, the answer
is: shine your own light.
Shinoda is half the vocal
firepower of the multi-platinum,
Grammy-winning band Linkin
Park, trading diaphragmatic
diatribes with singer Chester
Bennington and infusing
the searing alternative
rock with equally intense
hip-hop. From album to album,
Shinoda and his bandmates
have garnered a reputation
based on their appetite
for striking new ground.
On his first outing alone,
Shinoda is ready to show
people that he is still
hungry.
Shinoda's
rap roots have always had
to share space with other
elements-until now. Fort
Minor is a wholly unique,
unadulterated hip hop album,
owing as much to Shinoda's
polished lyricism as his
musical adeptness. The variety
of themes, styles, and moods
he creates make this "side
project" likely to
do much more than simply
satisfy existing LP fans;
it threatens to expose Shinoda
as a rap devotee who is
as at home in hip-hop as
he is in the cross-genre
hybrid of Linkin Park.
The Rising
Tied, the much-anticipated
debut of Shinoda's Fort
Minor, will be released
by Machine Shop Recordings/Warner
Bros., November 22, 2005.
Executive Produced by Jay-Z
(who collaborated with Linkin
Park on 2004's Collision
Course), The Rising Tied
is produced and mixed by
Shinoda, who wrote every
track, played nearly every
instrument and "slaved
over every detail."
While
Shinoda chose the name Fort
Minor to reflect the dynamic
between opposites - something
big and strong vs. something
small and slight (or musically
dark) - the name of the
album is also a play on
words. All of the guest
artists on The Rising Tied,
says Shinoda, are coming
up together in the music
world. Among them are Machine
Shop acts Styles of Beyond
and Holly Brook, as well
as Common, John Legend,
Kenna and Black Thought
(of The Roots), among others.
While
remaining an essential shard
in the mosaic of Linkin
Park, the desire to create
songs that resonated with
his youth as a hip-hop producer
and MC led Shinoda to write,
then record, a progression
of hip-hop-rooted songs.
As they began to coalesce
into an album bearing Shinoda's
solo imprimatur, he also
felt it was essential to
keep it "organic,"
making his own samples and
breakbeats with live instruments,
and avoiding sequenced keyboards.
The Rising Tied, channeling
some of the signature dynamics
and frustration of Linkin
Park, reveals a more personal
range of themes slagged
inside a distinctly hip-hop
crucible.
Not to
say that it's an entirely
homogenized collection.
On the track "Believe
Me," excerpts from
a decaying relationship
tremble over a seismic breakbeat,
infused with Latin percussion
and a cello-bass line that
reflects Shinoda's love
of classic rock. "High
Road," bouncing to
Billy Joel-like piano progressions,
adopts a humorous tone even
as it gives the finger to
someone who once told him
to "stick to keyboards,
don't rap."
More funny
business comes into play
in "Remember the Name,"
with Shinoda transforming
a traditional rapper's brag
into a subtler call for
respect, all done in the
third-person. What's the
formula for success? Shinoda
answers, in a walking tempo,
"This is 10% luck,
20% skill, 15% concentrated
power of will, 5% pleasure,
50% pain, and 100% reason
to remember the name."
Another
song that shifts traditional
perspectives is "Where'd
You Go?," a lament
for those on the road as
felt through the experience
of those left behind. Shinoda
warns, "'Where'd You
Go' makes my wife cry every
time she hears it."
On "Right
Now," inspired by Robert
Altman's iconoclastic film
Short Cuts, Shinoda, Black
Thought, and S.O.B. offer
a hodgepodge of scenes,
invoked to the rhythm of
a chopped-up piano loop,
which stitch together disparate
lives during any given moment.
Home-town pride inspires
Shinoda's unexpected and
highly personalized picture
of Los Angeles in the candid
"Back Home," while
sarcasm drives the irresponsible
zeitgeist of "Petrified,"
a precarious anthem built
on swagger, fear, and the
heaviest beat since Ice
Cube's "Wicked."
Clearly, the most unique
song of this album - or
any album, for that matter
- is a rap-flavored recollection
of the U.S. internment of
Japanese citizens during
World War II. "Kenji,"
featuring the voices of
Shinoda's aunt and father
who were interned in the
U.S. during the 1940s, paints
a bleak picture of those
who lost everything after
being thrown into what were
known then, euphemistically,
as "relocation camps."
Shinoda explains, "I
went to the Japanese-American
National Museum in L.A.
last year, and it reminded
me of all the stories my
family had told me, how
they were put into internment
camps here in the U.S.,
not because they had done
anything wrong, but simply
because they fit a profile.
I had to write a song about
it." With Fort Minor
and The Rising Tied, Shinoda
appreciated the chance to
tackle a new theme outside
the normal subject matter
of Linkin Park.
Tackling
big goals seems to be Shinoda's
modus operandi. Notwithstanding
an expectation to pursue
a career in the visual arts,
Mike decided instead to
become a musician while
working toward his B.A.
in Illustration from Art
Center College of Design
in Pasadena. Having already
taken ten years of piano
lessons, he first began
to work as a hip-hop MC
and producer. In the mid-1990s
Shinoda joined with guitarist
Brad Delson, turntablist
Joseph Hahn, drummer Rob
Bourdon, bassist Phoenix
and vocalist Chester Bennington
to form Linkin Park. The
band's debut, Hybrid Theory,
became the worldwide #1-selling
album of 2001, earning a
Grammy Award for Best Hard
Rock Performance ("Crawling")
and various other awards.
Its subsequent albums -
Reanimation, Meteora and
Live in Texas - have continued
to widen the band's fan
base and critical acclaim;
all together the catalogue
has sold upwards of 35 million
albums. On July 2 in Philadelphia,
Linkin Park performed as
part of the African aid/debt
relief effort Live 8, to
a live audience estimated
at nearly one million people.
Mike Shinoda's
personal philanthropic efforts
are growing as well. In
the past five years, he
has started a scholarship
at his alma mater and been
involved in groups such
as United Way, AIDS Project
L.A., Densho, the Japanese
American National Museum,
Arthritis Foundation and
the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Last year, Linkin Park launched
Music For Relief, an organization
to aid the rebuilding of
Southeast Asia; the band
played a sold-out show in
Los Angeles to support the
cause, raising over $2 million
for relief efforts.