Fort Minor - The Rising Tied: Album Review

Fort Minor, The Rising Tied (Wonder Bros, 2005)
Fort Minor is the nom de rap of Mike Shinoda, the part-Asian rappin' fellow from Linkin Park - you know, the one that goes, "caught in the undertow, I'm just caught in the undertow." This, his debut album as a solo rapper, was executive produced by Jay-Z, the alleged President of Def Jam Records.

INTRODUCTION

Because what would an album be without an intro? Features Jay-Z.

REMEMBER THE NAME

Very Styles of Beyond. In fact, seemingly every other song on here, this one included, features one or both of the members of that group. (There's two of them right?)

RIGHT NOW

Come to think of it, this might be a nice payday for them, their first in a long time. I seem to recall they were signed to a major label when they put out whatever it was they put out back in '99-2000.

Anyhoo, this song, featuring Black Thought and, you guessed it, Styles of Beyond is pretty dang good. Mike Shinoda Fort Minor is like Slug if he wrote songs worth listening to and rapped over good beats.

PETRIFIED

Petrified, meaning hardened. Nullus. I believe this is the one you can hear playing in the commercials on MTV.

FEEL LIKE HOME

Featuring no one's favorite rap group, Styles of Beyond. There's some nice scratching in the background and the beat's got that nice Dr. Dre 2001-style thump to it.

WHERE'D YOU GO

Wow, yeah, this might not have been the best of ideas. It calls to mind when groups like Good Charlotte try to make that one serious song, about suicide or some shit.

IN STEREO

Not at all related to The Cars' "Moving in Stereo," sadly. Mikey S put out a mixtape recently with Green Lantern or somebody that had lots of cool rock samples on it. I was hoping there would be more of them on here.

BACK HOME

Ooh, Common's on this one. Will he rap about how he finds rasta's who date white girls disappointing? Nah, his verse on this reminds me of "The Corner," which I didn't particularly care for. At least there's no screaming elderly black men on this.

CIGARETTES

In the kind of metaphor you'd only ever find on an indie rap album, Mikey S compares rap music to a cigarette.

BELIEVE ME

I'm feeling the beat here. Nullus. It's kinda fast and early '90s-sounding. Not as sold on the singing (who the eff is BoBo?), but whatever.

GET ME GONE

God no, a song about how tough it is being in Linkin Park. Skip!

HIGH ROAD

Kanye West's BF John Legend is on this. Nullus. I'm feeling the bass thud and the "Chopsticks"-style piano.

KENJI

About how the Japs were locked in internment camps in WWII (seriously). Michelle Malkin once wrote a book defending this action. I'm hoping someone will lock her up, preferably in my bedroom.

RED TO BLACK

I suppose it was only a matter of time before he tried to rock the Linkin Park formula. If I was the President of Def Jam, I would have advised otherwise.

THE BATTLE

Thirty-two seconds of indie rap genius Celph Titled battling someone.

SLIP OUT THE BACK

A story about something or other. The beat sounds like what Eminem would do if he knew what he was doing.

COMMENTS: Not bad. Mikey S ain't the greatest rapper in the world, but he's probably better than you'd expect. I did find it odd though that a) Jay-Z didn't drop a verse on the whole thing and b) Styles of Beyond (terribly lame, nondescript rappers) show up on 6 of the album's 14 songs.

BEST TRACKS: "Right Now" "Petrified" "High Road"