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Mike Shinoda

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Mike Shinoda is a rapper, singer, songwriter, producer and graphic designer. He was born in 1977 in Panorama City, a district of Los Angeles, and grew up in Agoura Hills in California. At high school he was in the same class as Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon, with whom he started Linkin Park in 1996; the first version of the band was called Xero. He then studied graphic design and illustration.

Music and breakthrough

In Linkin Park, Shinoda was the counterpart of the singer Chester Bennington. Where Bennington sang and screamed, Shinoda rapped. He also played rhythm guitar and keyboards, wrote most of the songs and co-produced. That combination of rap, heavy guitars and electronics is characteristic of the nu metal of around 2000. The debut Hybrid Theory (2000) was a huge success. In 2004 Shinoda produced Collision Course, a collaboration between Linkin Park and Jay-Z, which won a Grammy in 2006.

Influence

To show his hip-hop background, in 2004 he started the side project Fort Minor. From the album The Rising Tied (2005), Where'd You Go reached number four on the American Hot 100. After Bennington's death in July 2017, Shinoda made the solo album Post Traumatic (2018), on which he works through his grief. He is also a painter and has exhibited at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. In 2022 he won a Grammy for his remix of Passenger by Deftones.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen in In the End to the division of roles: Shinoda raps the verses over a simple, repeated piano figure, while Bennington sings and screams the chorus. Notice how the guitars only come in fully at the chorus.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsNu metal