The Battle

"The Battle"
Song by Fort Minor
from the album The Rising Tied
Recorded:	2005
Released:	November 22, 2005
Format:	Digital, CD, Vinyl
Length:	0:32
Writer:	Mike Shinoda
Producer:	Mike Shinoda
Label:	Machine Shop Recordings, Warner Bros. Records
The Rising Tied tracklist
Introduction Remember The Name (Feat. Styles Of Beyond) Right Now (Feat. Black Thought and Styles Of Beyond) Petrified Feel Like Home (Feat. Styles Of Beyond) Where'd You Go (Feat. Holly Brook and Jonah Matranga) In Stereo Back Home (Feat. Common and Styles Of Beyond) Cigarettes Believe Me (Feat. Styles Of Beyond and Eric Bobo) Get Me Gone High Road (Feat. John Legend) Kenji Red To Black (Feat. Jonah Matranga, Kenna and Styles Of Beyond) The Battle (Feat. Celph Titled) Slip Out The Back (Feat. Mr. Hahn)

Background

"The Battle" features vocals by Celph Titled and is an interlude on The Rising Tied. It is intended to be a short thirty second verse in a timed rap battle. However, the song does cut Celph Titled off in the middle of a lyric.

"Tools Of The Trade", another song with Celph Titled, was originally recorded to be an interlude in the album, but Mike felt the song turned out too silly, so "The Battle" took its spot.

In late 2006, Clear Channel Music posted the entire The Rising Tied album complete with commentaries from Mike Shinoda before each song. On "The Battle", he said, "‘The Battle’ was supposed to sound like uhm, it was at a venue, like people wondered, did I take that clip from an actual performance somewhere, and the answer’s actually no, I engineered it to make it sound like it was from a venue, that it was from a battle somewhere. The concept behind the battle was – it’s not a battle like a battle rap, but this is the battle, the everyday battle of life, of what’s more important than rapping, because a lot of underground MCs get.. get all caught up in the hip-hop thing and they lose sight of real life when they are writing lyrics. "

In a March 28, 2005 interview with Hip Hop Game, Apathy said about Celph Titled, "He actually just left my crib. We've been working on a ton of shit. He's doing an EP soon. He was also just recording for an album, with J-Zone and himself. He recorded for my album, Motive's album, been workin with Styles of Beyond, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, and the AOTP album. He's doin tons of shit."

Extended Mix

A full length version of "The Battle" can be found on Celph Titled's four disc compilation The Gatalog: A Collection Of Chaos, which was released in 2006. Celph Titled recorded additional lines in another session on his own to finish the verse, bringing it to over a minute long.

Like the version on The Rising Tied, it features messenger noise samples from popular client MSN Messenger.

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
The Battle	The Rising Tied	0:32	2005	November 22, 2005	Features vocals by Celph Titled.
The Battle	The Rising Tied (Non-PA Version)	0:32	2005	November 22, 2005	Censored.
The Battle (Extended Mix) (feat. Mike Shinoda)	The Gatalog: A Collection Of Chaos	1:15	2005	October 24, 2006	Long version.
The Battle (Extended Mix) (Instrumental)	The Gatalog (Instrumentals)	1:16	2005	October 24, 2006	Long version. Official instrumental version.

Lyrics

Album Version

Times up, times up, times up!
Alright Celph you got 30 seconds,
You ready?
Alright Celph Titled hit em!

Hhaha..yeah! Aight, that's all you got?

These hungry rappers battle for a buck and some change,
There really be kids starving, give a fuck if it change,
Shock rap, not that, you get signed you might blow up,
"Release Party In Iraq", you might blow up,
I see you trying to think a few lines you might get at me with,
Slap happy with babies who're born with crack in they cribs,
Too much to cram under you oversized fitted,
And the public school system failed you,
Either you're ignorant or...

Extended Version

Times up, times up, times up!
Alright Celph you got 30 seconds,
You ready?
Aight Celph Titled hit em!

Hhaha..yeah! Aight, that's all you got?

Yeah, listen, yo
These hungry rappers battle for a buck and some change,
There really be kids starving, give a fuck if it change,
Shock rap, not that, you get signed you might blow up,
"Release Party In Iraq", you might blow up,
I see you trying to think a few lines you might get at me with,
Slap happy with babies who're born with crack in they cribs,
Too much to cram under you oversized fitted,
And the public school system failed you,
Either you're ignorant or you isn't
Ain't concerned with scuffin my sneakers
My demographic listenin but not too many rappers teachin
And I, find a way to fill a hard drive up
With songs containing mainly "bitch, hoe, shit, fuck"
You know what's up, there's some ill shit goin on
So long, it's topics that I never really spoken on
I'm just like you, a kid who wants to rap, get money, put an album out
Mansion where the fountains spout
Out in the front yard, side-walk leadin to the street
Which leads to me to speak, my speech reaches the whole world and yet still
I'd rather rap about what I got or what I'll do to you
If you disrespect, you guessed it, I'm shootin you
But who's the true villain and who's ill and
Mixtape gunshots ain't really killin
People dyin', it's tough luck, can't figure out if I'm the problem or the world's just fucked up

Gallery

• 

  The Gatalog: A Collection Of Chaos

• 

  The Gatalog (Instrumentals)