Introduction

Background

In late 2006, Clear Channel Music posted the entire The Rising Tied album complete with commentaries from Mike Shinoda before each song. On "Introduction", he said, "This album basically started as an idea to get back to my roots and the type of music that I used to make before Linkin Park. Back then I was listening to things like Run DMC, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Rakim, NWA, Boogie Down Productions. Uhm, and a lot of that was sample based, that used to go back to old, you know, 70’s, 60’s rock and funk and blues records and sample those things. I wanted to make an album that had that feel, but instead of sampling from those old records, I made the samples myself, by playing the instruments by hand. Anyway, here we go! Fort Minor – The Rising Tied. I produced and mixed every track. Overseen by Jay-Z, and I had a lot of great friends on the record. Check it out."

"Introduction" features Jay-Z talking about the album when Mike hosted Brad and Jay-Z at his house to help him pick songs to make The Rising Tied, which is shown in the album's documentary. Jay-Z's talking to Mike says, "The record that you made, that's underground hip-hop, but with big...with big sounds, but with big...with big sounds, that's what takes it over 'cause the sounds are so big. It's an underground...that's an underground hip-hop record."

The second clip of Jay-Z talking, saying, "The richness of the music and everything, I knew it was going to be somethin' serious" comes from Linkin Park and Jay-Z's Collision Course EPK (electronic press kit). Jay-Z is talking about the Collision Course rehearsal for the live show at The Roxy and says, "Just at rehearsal when they was going through the set and what we was going to do that night, I was just getting a whole, like, the richness of the music and everything, I knew it was going to be somethin' serious."

On Fort Minor's website in September 2005, Mike had several different clips of music playing for fans. At first, it was a clip of "Remember The Name" with the swirling intro and repeating string parts. This instrumental was released as the beginning and background parts on the Sampler Mixtape song "Intro". "Intro" was then used as the live intro to Fort Minor's setlist as "Remember The Name" opened all of the shows.

Later, the clip of "Remember The Name" was upgraded to include the synth, Mike yelling "you ready? let's go!", and the beat of the song on repeat, before the song was officially released. This was a 50 second clip. The second clip updated at that time was an instrumental that later turned out to be "Introduction" on The Rising Tied, coming in at 35 seconds.

Versions

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

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Introduction	The Rising Tied	0:43	2005	November 22, 2005
sound3		0:35	2005	September 2005	Early clip of "Introduction" from Fort Minor's website background music.

Live

While the studio version of "Introduction" has never been played, a remix of the song debuted at the first full show after Fort Minor's hiatus to open the show, and has been played at every show since then in that position.

Another remixed version of "Introduction" was added to Mike's Post Traumatic Tour set on the second night of the Asian Tour in Bangkok, Thailand, where it opened the encore. This remix version was similar to the 2015 version, but without the extra percussion and extended voice recordings. One of the voice clips in the track appears to be from Ghostface Killah as it starts, "Yo Mike what's the deal? Ghost right here." Ghostface is on the Fort Minor track "Spraypaint & Inkpens" from the We Major mixtape so it is possible the clip is from 2005.

At the end of the tour, beginning with Mike's second Summer Sonic show in Tokyo, "Introduction" and "Petrified" were moved to the start of the set, replacing "Welcome." The songs maintained their positions at the next headlining show in Singapore, with "Welcome" now opening the encore. The track was only ever used to open the show or encore for the remainder of the tour.

Variations

Fort Minor

Last Updated: August 23, 2018

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Alternative	2015 Remix Version	June 29, 2015	September 8, 2015

Mike Shinoda

Last Updated: May 3, 2020

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Alternative	2018 Remix Version	August 9, 2018	September 8, 2019

Lyrics

"The record that you made,
That's underground hip-hop, ("Okay.")
But with big...with big sounds,
But with big...with big sounds,
That's what takes it over 'cause the sounds are so big,
It's an underground...that's an underground hip-hop record,

The richness of the music and everything, I knew it was going to be somethin' serious."