Red To Black

Background

In late 2006, Clear Channel Music posted the entire The Rising Tied album complete with commentaries from Mike Shinoda before each song. On "Red To Black", he said, "On the Linkin Park album Meteora we did a song called ‘From The Inside’, which is a 6/8 time song. That means there’s 6 counts per measure, uhm, and that’s more... usually more of a rock thing, or more… it’s less of a hip-hop thing, you don’t really hear hip-hop artist doing a 6/8 time song. But I really liked doing it and I wanted to do it some more on the Fort Minor album. ‘Red to Black’ kinda came up in that way and since it was that 6/8 time, and it had me and Styles of Beyond already on it, I wanted to try and get a couple more artists to just take that weird, you know, hip-hop, but non-hip-hop thing to the next level. And so I gave a couple of friends of mine a call and that was Kenna and Jonah Matranga and I just thought that the three of our voices together was the weirdest thing, but it worked for this song."

While a lot of the songs on the album came pretty easily, Mike says "Red To Black" was hard to do.

In the Making of The Rising Tied DVD when Brad and Jay-Z were helping him pick songs for the album, Mike told Jay-Z that he got two new vocalists for the song and he sang with both of them on the chorus, layering the vocals.

Versions

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

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Red To Black	The Rising Tied	3:12	2005	November 22, 2005	Features vocals by Kenna, Jonah Matranga and Styles Of Beyond.
Red To Black	The Rising Tied (Non-PA Version)	3:12	2005	November 22, 2005	Censored. Different vocal take. Different lyrics.
Red To Black	Instrumental Album: The Rising Tied	3:16	2005		Official instrumental version.

Live

"Red To Black" debuted at Fort Minor's performance at MySpace's 2nd Anniversary Party. It was featured near the end of the main set during its live history, and featured a post-song drum solo after most of its performances. At the last show of the 2006 U.S. Tour in San Francisco, California, Jonah Matranga, who is featured on the studio version of the song, came out and performed the song with Fort Minor. The song was performed throughout 2006 (though unconfirmed for the Summer Sonic appearances). It did not return when Mike brought Fort Minor back in 2015.

On August 29, 2015, Mike conducted a fan poll online about what song he should add to the setlist of Fort Minor's September 2, 2015 show in Berlin. The choices were "High Voltage", "Step Up", "Second To None", "Red To Black", and "Right Now". "High Voltage" won by a significant majority.

Variations

Last Updated: September 14, 2016

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Outro	Post-Song Drum Solo	October 29, 2005	April 22, 2006

Live Guests

Last Updated: September 14, 2016

• Jonah Matranga

Lyrics

Album Version

Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Whoa

I had a friend named Victor
The two of us used to hang every single day
And it seemed like overnight that his whole life / just changed
I know when his mom and dad broke up / it didn't make sense
But I know that his dad was a drunk and he gambled away the rent
Pretty soon Vic was seeing red / pissed off / but instead (Whoa)
He'd drink every night 'til he passed out (Whoa)
Then he'd do it all again
The whole time / smiling on the outside to cover the pain (Whoa)
But on the inside / all he was trying to do was get away (Whoa)

He's dying to get away
Let the pain of yesterday
Go slipping through the cracks...

Yo, funny how things change color
Then fade to another shade / when you had it made
It was all good / but now look / just another day
It was so fresh / it was so clean
Now it's all gone / one, two, three
Lights out / which way to turn
Can't get a grip / All alone in a big white house
Every day gets worse / and you just curse 'til your head bursts
And it hurts so bad / she left / now you suffer
Should've thought of that one first
No family / no kids / can accept what you did / now you wanna
Run away but you can't cause the past comes back again

Slippin' through the cracks / sip a little Jack
Go to be half dead
What about the rent? Why does every cent gotta be a bet
When's it gonna end
Oh my God / we don't got a penny left
My mom's gotta find a way to get a job
Outta debt / outta dodge / out of breath / out of this big problem
My pop's wanna get away from the pain (Whoa)
In a better place in his brain
But the medication he takes makes him wasted (Whoa)
So sick he was gonna think the good Lord would come take him (Whoa)
I'm shaking him
Wake up you son of a bitch (Whoa)

He's dying to get away
Let the pain of yesterday
Go slipping through the cracks
Hiding himself away
Watching all the memories fade away
From red to black

He's dying to get away
Let the pain of yesterday
Go slipping through the cracks
Hiding himself away
Watching all the memories fade away
From red to black

Slipping through the cracks
Slipping through the cracks
Slipping through the cracks

Time's up

Non-PA Version

Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Whoa

I had a friend named Victor
The two of us used to hang every single day
And it seemed like overnight that his whole life / just changed
I know when his mom and dad broke up / it didn't make sense
But I know that his dad was a drunk and he gambled away the rent
Pretty soon Vic was seeing red / take off / but instead (Whoa)
He'd drink every night 'til he passed out (Whoa)
Then he'd do it all again
The whole time / smiling on the outside to cover the pain (Whoa)
But on the inside / all he was trying to do was get away (Whoa)

He's dying to get away
Let the pain of yesterday
Go slipping through the cracks...

Yo, funny how things change color
Then fade to another shade / when you had it made
It was all good / but now look / just another day
It was so fresh / it was so clean
Now it's all gone / one, two, three
Lights out / which way to turn
Can't get a grip / All alone in a big white house
Every day gets worse / and you just curse 'til your head bursts
And it hurts so bad / she left / now you suffer
Should've thought of that one first
No family / no kids / can accept what you did / now you wanna
Run away but you can't cause the past comes back again

Slippin' through the cracks / sip a little [...]
Go to be half dead
What about the rent? Why does every cent gotta be a bet
When's it gonna end
Oh my God / we don't got a penny left
My mom's gotta find a way to get a job
Outta debt / outta dodge / out of breath / out of this big problem
My pop's wanna get away from the pain (Whoa)
In a better place in his brain
But the [...] he takes makes him wasted (Whoa)
So sick he was gonna think the good Lord would come take him (Whoa)
I'm shaking him
Wake up you son of a [...] (Whoa)

He's dying to get away
Let the pain of yesterday
Go slipping through the cracks
Hiding himself away
Watching all the memories fade away
From red to black

He's dying to get away
Let the pain of yesterday
Go slipping through the cracks
Hiding himself away
Watching all the memories fade away
From red to black

Slipping through the cracks
Slipping through the cracks
Slipping through the cracks

Time's up