Fort Minor is a hip-hop side project created by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. The group's first album is entitled The Rising Tied.
Mike's goal for the project is to have fun with his friends, rather than to showcase the hottest names in underground and mainstream hip-hop.
"It's called Fort Minor, instead of my name because there are a bunch of other people involved in the project. But I only wanted to work with family and friends; people that I feel are really close to me and we see eye-to-eye." -- Mike Shinoda, BallerStatus.
The music also has almost no focus on materalism, which often saturates modern hip hop, and instead focuses on regular life and issues.
The Rising Tied is the first project from Fort Minor, the album was released on November 22, 2005 through Machine Shop Recordings..
Recording the solo album late into 2004, and first words came in December, when he mentioned the album out of context in interviews. In addition to the confirmed artists already on the bill for the album, Mike is rumoured to have met with Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Musiq and more.
As well as producing the CD, Mike played every instrument on all the tracks that make it into the final cut (minus the strings). An exclusive listening party of 5 of the impending tracks was held on April 13, 2005 with an audience of all the most credible online hip-hop press.
All of the music on The Rising Tied was composed, produced and mixed by Shinoda alone. Only two other members of the Linkin Park band are involved with The Rising Tied; guitarist Brad Delson helped do the A&R work for the album and DJ Joe Hahn was featured on one song. The Rising Tied was released on November 22, 2005 with the song "Petrified" believed to be the lead single in the U.S.; as for the UK & Australia, "Believe Me" was the single.
