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Michael Kenji "Mike" Shinoda (born February 11, 1977) is a musician, record producer, artist, and actor. He is best known as the rapper, songwriter, keyboardist, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Linkin Park, and as a solo rapper in his side-project, Fort Minor. He also provides artwork, production and mixing for both groups.
Early life
Shinoda was born and raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Agoura Hills. His father is Japanese American, and his mother is Russian American. He has a younger brother. Shinoda attended Parkman Elementary and Lindero Canyon Middle School.
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As per his mother's wishes, Shinoda began his classical piano training with lessons around the age of six, his enthusiasm eventually growing. At the age of thirteen, he expressed the desire to move towards playing jazz, blues, and even hip-hop. During his middle school and high school years, he added the guitar and, eventually, rap-style vocals to his repertoire.
After his teens, Mike Shinoda's rap interests found a source of encouragement in Brad Delson, with whom he started to write and record songs in a makeshift studio set up in his bedroom. Shinoda attended Agoura High School with Linkin Park bandmates Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon as well as with members of the band Hoobastank. By the end of high school, Bourdon had become involved in their musical ventures. The trio formed the band Xero, and began to make a more serious attempt to pursue a career in the music industry.
After high school, Shinoda enrolled in the Art Center College of Design to study graphic design and illustration. It was here that he made the acquaintance of DJ and turntablist Joseph Hahn, who, along with Delson's college-mate Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, was soon added to Xero's line-up. It was also here that he experienced a form of identity crisis. Years later, in an interview he said:
![2009 - mike shinoda [We have people in the band who don't drink or do drugs... some of us like to go sightseeing. (Mike Shinoda)]](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Gf5v3mIUMgA/TIJzvGIZcCI/AAAAAAAACSI/kWD7M91ubzM/s1600-h/2009%20-%20mike%20shinoda%20%5BWe%20have%20people%20in%20the%20band%20who%20don%27t%20drink%20or%20do%20drugs...%20some%20of%20us%20like%20to%20go%20sightseeing.%20%28Mike%20Shinoda%29%5D%5B14%5D.jpg "2009 - mike shinoda [We have people in the band who don't drink or do drugs... some of us like to go sightseeing. (Mike Shinoda)]")
"I think it was probably in college that I realized that there was a difference between Japanese and Japanese-American. That’s important to realize. It’s not the same thing and then eventually with Linkin Park, I toured in Japan. I’ve been there now I think four times. I remember the first time I went, how familiar it seemed, just getting out of the plane, it smelled like my aunt’s house, in the airport, it smelled like Japan. I don’t know if anybody else even noticed it but I walked out of the plane and thought this is definitely familiar to me, didn’t even see anything yet. And then going to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, you just recognize things about the way people act, the small things that people do such as how you’ll grab a piece of paper. There are things that are more obvious like taking somebody’s business card with two hands. You don’t do that in the States. When I saw somebody do that I went, “Oh yeah, my uncle always does that,” you know. There are little things that culturally come from Japan but they also exist in Japanese American culture and it made me feel like the connection was there and I kind of hadn’t realized how much of it was there."
At only 21 years old, Shinoda eventually graduated from college with a degree in illustration, securing himself a job as a graphic designer right after graduation. With his background as a graphic artist, Shinoda has taken it upon himself in designing all of Linkin Park's artwork with Hahn, and has even designed the album cover for Styles of Beyond's debut album, 2000 Fold. In later years he would go on to showcase his art skills; he had his debut art showcase (Diamonds Spades Hearts & Clubs) at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles in the time leading up to Linkin Park's album Minutes to Midnight.
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Linkin Park
Shinoda's band (at this point called Linkin Park; used to be called Xero before a legal issue with another band) brought in second vocalist Chester Bennington, replacing Mark Wakefield. From the onset, Shinoda was closely involved in the technical aspects of the band's recordings, and over the subsequent releases that role continued to expand. Shinoda, with guitarist Brad Delson, engineered and produced the band's Hybrid Theory EP, and performed similar roles in the recording of the Hybrid Theory album. Mike executively organized and oversaw the band's remix album Reanimation (2002), contributing his own production remixes that he made in his home studio for "Crawling" and "Pushing Me Away." In his spare time, he produced and performed on a song by The X-Ecutioners entitled "It's Goin' Down."
On the second Linkin Park Warner Bros. studio release Meteora (2003) Shinoda continued to expand upon his duties as a musician and studio technician/engineer. Additionally, for the backbone of the album artwork, Shinoda collaborated with graffiti artist DELTA, graphic designer Frank Maddocks, and band-mate Joe Hahn.
By the release of the Linkin Park and Jay-Z 'mash-up' album Collision Course in 2004, Shinoda's involvement in the creation of the albums continued to grow. He produced and mixed the album, which won a Grammy Award for "best rap / sung collaboration" later that year.
The band released their latest album, Minutes to Midnight, on May 14, 2007. On this album, Shinoda shared a production credit with producer Rick Rubin, overseeing the musical evolution of the band's sound. This album was also the first time that Shinoda, best known for his rapping, sang a featured vocal. Mike sang in the songs "In Between" and the b-side song, "No Roads Left," as well as rapping and singing in the songs "Bleed It Out" and "Hands Held High." Despite the uncommonness of Shinoda-fronted singing tracks, Hit Parader ranked Mike at number 72 of the Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. Mike and Rick Rubin again shared a production credit for Linkin Park's upcoming album, A Thousand Suns, due for release on September 14, 2010.
Fort Minor
Shinoda formed a side project named "Fort Minor" between 2003 and 2004 because he couldn't demonstrate as much of his hip-hop background in Linkin Park. He explained the name of his project in an interview:
“'Fort' represents the more aggressive side of the music. 'Minor' can mean a few things: if you're talking about music theory, the minor key is darker. I wanted to name the album rather than having my name on the cover, because I want people to focus on the music, not me.”
The debut album from Fort Minor, titled The Rising Tied, was released on November 13, 2005, and includes guest appearances from Styles of Beyond, Lupe Fiasco, Common, Black Thought of The Roots, John Legend, Holly Brook, Jonah Matranga, Celph Titled, and features Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) as an executive producer.
For the NBA 2006-2007 season, "Remember the Name", the second single from The Rising Tied, became the soundtrack for NBA Overtime on TNT. It was an NBA remix version, and remains the staple song for NBA on TNT to this day. Furthermore the Big East used "Remember the Name" as its theme song for the Big East Basketball Tournament in 2006.
He also scored a Top 10 smash with the surprise hit single "Where'd You Go", which peaked at #4 on Billboard Hot 100 chart.
After the release of the album, Shinoda also contributed to the iTunes Store by creating his own celebrity playlist.
Fort Minor won an MTV VMA for "Best Ringtone" in 2006, and was featured in the following films and TV programs (2005–2006): Entourage, Boston Legal, Gridiron Gang, Freedom Writers, Friday Night Lights (TV), and Numbers.
Shinoda has also continued his Fort Minor musical style in an executive producer role on the upcoming Styles Of Beyond album, "Reseda Beach" He is contributing music and vocals to the album, which was slated for release sometime in 2009. However, the album has not been released till date and Styles of Beyond is under hiatus.
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