The Rising Tied

*The Rising Tied*
The Rising Tied
Studio album by Fort Minor
Fort Minor chronology
Fort Minor chronology
We Major; (2005)	The Rising Tied; (2005)

The Rising Tied is the first, and to date only, studio album from Mike Shinoda’s side project Fort Minor. The album was released on November 22, 2005 through Warner Bros. Records and Mike's label Machine Shop Recordings. To promote the album, Mike also released a mixtape We Major which featured some of the guests that appeared on The Rising Tied as well as other friends of his.

The album produced four singles with "Remember The Name", "Petrified", "Believe Me", and "Where'd You Go".

Background

In February 2005, Questlove of The Roots said Mike was working on a solo album. In a March 4, 2005 interview with MTV, Mike confirmed that he was producing a hip hop album of his own with guests that include but are not limited to Black Thought of The Roots and Common. "I'm trying to get the music up to what we want it to be. It's pressure, because I'm producing it. I want to connect with people I see eye-to-eye with, and make great music. Like I said, it's not really about me." He also added, "It's not straight hip-hop, but it's not rock at all. For our fans who only like the rock side of Linkin Park, I hope you enjoy it, but you never know."

Mike created a website and forum for fans and artists to post on, and he joined in regularly. The Fort Minor website launched in April and on April 14, 2005 ahead of Mike's appearance on Fuse's Daily Download the next day, fans could subscribe to a mailing list and listen to two clips of background music (clips later used in "Introduction" and "Remember The Name"). On the forum, a summer 2005 post read, "FM is in no way an indicator that LP is breaking up. LP is fine, in fact we have been talking recently about new music. talk to you soon!"

A June 14, 2005 coded message on Fort Minor’s website read, "The debut fort minor album is entitled the rising tied in an effort to get back to his hip hop roots. mike wrote and played virtually every note on the album. the album features a group of his friends in the hip hop community.”

In an October 9, 2005 interview with All Hip Hop, Mike said, "Mr. Hahn, our DJ, is on a track called "Slip Out The Back." And since we're putting this out on our label, Machine Shop Records, I got to choose our guitarist, Brad Delson, as my A&R. The name "The Rising Tied," is basically a play on words: this "tied" group of people is coming up together on this album."

Writing and Recording

Mike created the beats himself, only using a sample from Apple’s GarageBand for "Believe Me". The album was recorded at Mike’s home studio (commonly referred to in LPTV episodes and album liner notes as The Stockroom) and at NRG, where Hybrid Theory and Meteora were recorded (as well as later Linkin Park albums and songs).

Mike said, "the FM lyrics felt really personal to me. i had a tough time writing some of them, but at the end, i was really happy w how it all turned out"^[1]

As far as guests go, he brought in a lot of friends like Styles of Beyond, which he had an extended relationship with for over eight years prior. In an April 18, 2005 interview with MTV, Mike said, "Their producer helped me buy my first sampler. I've known these guys forever, and for me to be able to come back and put them on [Linkin Park's] label, Machine Shop Records, it's a good feeling. You can tell on the song "Remember The Name" [that] we were having fun with it and being able to brag on it." Cheapshot from Styles of Beyond revealed, "Styles of Beyond actually recorded 14 songs with Mike during the recording process of "The Rising Tied." After picking and choosing the final songs, Styles of Beyond will appear on 6 songs on the album." While six songs made the album, six with Styles Of Beyond are on We Major, one was released to the Fort Minor Militia, "Do What We Did", and one remains unreleased, "Watch Their Mouth".^[2]

Eric Bobo from Cypress Hill, another good friend of Mike’s, recorded Latin percussion on "Believe Me." David Campbell, known for his work on Linkin Park’s Meteora with "Breaking The Habit", arranged strings for "Remember The Name", "Feel Like Home", "Cigarettes", and "Slip Out The Back". Additionally, Mike had a choir featured on "Where'd You Go", "Cigarettes", "Kenji", and "Slip Out The Back".

Other guests included John Legend, Common, Black Thought of The Roots, Lupe Fiasco, Holly Brook, Jonah Matranga, Lupe Fiasco, Sixx John, and Celph Titled. Finally, Joe Hahn from Linkin Park was featured on "Slip Out The Back". There was an early rumor that Kanye West was going to be on the album, from the Styles Of Beyond label Spytech Records who said, "S.O.B. has also been working on their first major label appearance, “ FORT MINOR ” which features Mike Shinoda ( Linkin Park ), Common, Black Thought (The Roots), Kanye West, Kenna, and more. And catch this…the album is executive produced by none other than (drum roll please) JAY-Z! This is definitely one album that you're not going to wanna sleep on. Fort Minor is slated to drop Summer 2005." DJ Cheapshot denied that rumor himself in May 2005.

At the end of the process, Mike asked Jay-Z to be the executive producer of the album and invited Brad Delson, Linkin Park’s guitarist, to serve as A&R. Together, the three of them listened to all of the songs and voted on which songs made the album. This can be seen in the album DVD with Mike saying the only two songs he 100% had to have on the album were "Kenji", about his Japanese family being interned during World War II, and "Where’d You Go", written about his wife Anna.

Mike said in July 2005 that the album was wrapped up when he posted, "anyway, the fort minor album is just about ready, but i have some little things i want to get done before anyone can hear it."^[3]

Composition

Mike produced the album himself but asked Jay-Z, who collaborated with Linkin Park on 2004’s Collision Course EP, to serve as the executive producer for the album. Mike also had Linkin Park’s guitarist Brad Delson, who gave Mike his old nickname “The Glue”, help with the project as the album’s A&R.

On The Rising Tied, Mike asked some of his longtime friends to join him in the recording process. Local LA rap group Styles Of Beyond, who Mike knew for over six years, ended up being featured on six songs. Other guests included Jonah Matranga, Holly Brook, Linkin Park’s own Joe Hahn, and hip hop artists Common, John Legend, Black Thought, Lupe Fiasco, Kenna, Eric Bobo from Cypress Hill, Sixx John, and Celph Titled.

Songs were inspired from a wide variety of topics, including Mike’s family heritage displayed in "Kenji", Los Angeles on "Back Home", and Mike’s take on the current hip hop world on "Cigarettes". He wrote a song for his wife Anna with "Where’d You Go", with the lyrics coming from her perspective when Mike is out on tour with Linkin Park.

There is spoken commentary at several points during the album. You can hear Jay-Z during the discussions of which songs to include on the album on "Introduction" and before "In Stereo".

Two interludes are included on the album. "Get Me Gone" is in a way, its own short song, but discusses the label trying to change Linkin Park at first and how the band felt it was a "us versus the world" mentality when they released Hybrid Theory. "The Battle" is a short skit with Celph Titled.

Releases

Mike originally planned for and promoted the album coming out in summer 2005. On May 22, 2005, he posted on the LP Underground forums, saying, "hope are all well...i've been crazy busy with the fort minor stuff. things are moving a little slow, so the album will probably be out after summer. but the good news is that we hope to get music out to the world earlier than planned. anyway, more details coming soon."^[4] He followed up in early August saying that the album was almost completed. In late August, the Fort Minor Newsletter from fortminor.com confirmed the release in November.

MTV.com put up an exclusive stream of The Rising Tied on November 15, 2005 for fans to hear before the album was released.^[5]

On November 17, 2005, Mike posted in his Numb journal, "exciting times. the fort minor CD is out this week. i'm doing some TV stuff and interviews, so you'll be catching those on the web and hopefully on TV near you soon. keep an eye out. there are actually some really cool stories about how the album was made and all that. anyway, i'm really tired--i just did ten interviews and some photos, then jumped on a plane, so i'm going to go to sleep. for those of you that have heard the album on MTV's The Leak online, thanks for checking it out. the feedback has been REALLY positive from you, so i wanted to stop in and say i appreciate it. for those of you who can't get the MTV thing to work, don't worry--the album will be in stores soon! see ya"^[6]

Physical

Mike announced on October 8, 2005 that there would be a special edition of The Rising Tied released, saying, "one more bit of news: there will be a special edition of the album, out on the same day as the regular release. THE SPECIAL EDITION is really great, it had a 25-minute DVD, THREE extra songs (featuring Kenna, Holly Brook, and Lupe Fiasco) and extra art. trust me, you'll want to check for this one. it'll be on presale on the site as well..."^[7]

At some point in early 2006, an international-only "tour edition" was released, maybe only in Singapore. It featured everything the special edition did, except it also had "Petrified (Los Angeles Remix)" as a twentieth song.

Digital

Track Listing

Standard Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Introduction	Shinoda Michael Kenji	0:43
2	Remember The Name	Bashir Takbir, Maginn Ryan, Shinoda	3:50
3	Right Now	Bashir, Maginn, Shinoda, Trotter Tariq	4:14
4	Petrified	Shinoda	3:40
5	Feel Like Home	Bashir, Maginn, Shinoda	3:53
6	Where'd You Go	Shinoda	3:51
7	In Stereo	Shinoda	3:29
8	Back Home	Bashir, Lynn Lonnie Rashid, Maginn, Shinoda	3:44
9	Cigarettes	Shinoda	3:39
10	Believe Me	Bashir, Maginn, Shinoda	3:42
11	Get Me Gone	Shinoda	1:56
12	High Road	Shinoda	3:16
13	Kenji	Shinoda	3:51
14	Red To Black	Bashir, Maginn, Shinoda	3:11
15	The Battle	Shinoda	0:32
16	Slip Out The Back	Hahn Joseph, Shinoda	3:57

Special Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
17	Silence / Blank #1		0:04
18	Silence / Blank #2		0:04
19	Be Somebody	Shinoda, Jaco Wasalu	3:15
20	There They Go	Shinoda, John Sixx	3:17
21	The Hard Way	Shinoda	3:54

Tour Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
17	Silence / Blank #1		0:04
18	Silence / Blank #2		0:04
19	Be Somebody	Shinoda, Jaco Wasalu	3:15
20	There They Go	Shinoda, John Sixx	3:17
21	The Hard Way	Shinoda	3:54
22	Petrified (Los Angeles Remix)	Shinoda	3:32

Personnel

Production

Additional Musicians

Management

Artwork

Long time Linkin Park collaborator Frank Maddocks worked on several treatments for the cover artwork. However, in the end, Mike decided that he didn't want the album to have his name on it and wanted it to be just under the name Fort Minor. The final cover ended up being designed by Mike.