Fort Minor

Fort Minor

Fort Minor is a hip hop ensemble formed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.

The group primarily features Mike, alongside hip hop duo, Styles of Beyond, as well as several other notable guest artists. They are known for their 2006 single, "Where'd You Go", which features Holly Brook and Jonah Matranga, and also their single, "Remember the Name". Thus far, Fort Minor has released one album, 2005's The Rising Tied, and also has a fan club similar to Linkin Park Underground, titled Fort Minor Militia.

History and musical style of Fort Minor

Mike Shinoda's plan was to make music while enjoying time with his friends, who include Ryu, Tak, and many other leading musical artists.

Fort Minor's first major album, The Rising Tied, features 16 tracks (with three bonus tracks on the Limited Edition), many of which are specific to the lives of Shinoda and his collaborators. Remember The Name, for example, describes the group's views on being rappers, while Kenji describes the experiences of Shinoda's family during the Japanese American internment of World War II. Other tracks, such as Slip Out The Back, have more general lyrical themes. In the lyrics of the track Get Me Gone, he has said that before the debut album of Linkin Park came out, a person in the company to which they were signed told Mike to quit rapping and just play keyboards because the band didn't need a MC as they already had a singer, but with the help of the band, Mike released the album as they were and the humour of every people who made fun of Mike flattened.

Fort Minor won Ringtone of the Year for "Where'd You Go" at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.

In November of 2006, Fort Minor released a new video for "Remember the Name", which features a montage of various amazing feats. Shinoda has stated he felt the video was a nice wrap-up for Fort Minor. Also in November, Shinoda stated that Fort Minor is on hiatus, because of his dedication to Linkin Park.

As of August 19, 2006, Fort Minor's debut album has sold 400,000 copies.

During the mid August of 2006 Fort Minor were at the Summer Sonic 2006 and performed there as well as Linkin Park and other bands.

In 2006, Holly Brook released an exclusive version of 'Where'd You Go?' to radio stations, made completely by Holly Brook. Mike does not feature on the new version, which can be heard by request on various American radio stations.

Since the commerical release of The Rising Tied no future projects have been announced yet as of this moment.

Discography

Mixtapes and albums

• 2005: Fort Minor: Sampler Mixtape (Mixed by DJ Cheapshot)
• 2005: DJ Green Lantern Presents Fort Minor: We Major
• 2005: The Rising Tied

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions						Album
		U.S. Hot 100	Pop 100	Hot Digital Songs	UK Singles	New Zealand Singles	AUS Singles
2005	"Petrified"	-	76	-	-	-	-	The Rising Tied
	"Believe Me" (featuring Bobo & Styles of Beyond)	-	-	-	60	-	43
2006	"Where'd You Go" (featuring Holly Brook & Jonah Matranga)	4	3	5	-	14	41
	"Remember the Name" (featuring Styles of Beyond)	66	42	29	-	-	-
	"S.C.O.M. / Dolla / Get It / Spraypaint & Ink Pens"	-	-	-	-	-	-	DJ Green Lantern Presents Fort Minor: We Major

Music videos

Four music videos have been released:

• "Believe Me"
• "Petrified" — directed by Robert Hales – #8 TRL
• "Remember The Name" — directed by Kimo Proudfoot
• "Where'd You Go" (explicit version), (edited version) — directed by Philip Andelman – #1 TRL (retired)

Trivia

• Jermain "Beatdown" McQueen is Fort Minor's official drummer for the live concerts.
• The mixing samples to "Remember the Name" were released to ccMixter under a Creative Commons license, mainly for the "Remember the Name" remix contest. The samples include the acappellas (both radio edited and unedited) and the music samples straight from recording sessions.
• The winner of the "Remember The Name" remix contest were Marc Kaschke and Norman Mauer, with their Remember the Name (Kaschke & Mauer Remix) track.
• The song "Remember the Name" was one of the official theme songs for TNT's coverage of the 2006 NBA Playoffs.
• Mike Shinoda and Ryu Maginn (of Styles of Beyond) appear in Apathy's music video for "The Winter"
• The drum patterns of the song "The Hard Way" were used for one of the theatrical previews of the 2007 movie Freedom Writers.
• The orchestral background in the song "Believe Me" is the "Apple loop" named "Orchestra Strings 08" found in GarageBand and also in Logic Pro.
• The cello notes heard on "Remember The Name" were made by a group of cellists playing individual notes in rapid succession, rather than one cellist. Mike Shinoda stated that the string of notes was created on a piano, and he hadn't realized the difficulty in playing the same string of notes on a cello; thus, the cellists devised a way to play it by splitting it up into the individual notes.
• In fall 2006, the single "Remember the Name" was used in two promotional TV spots for NBC television's football drama Friday Night Lights. It has also been used in a NUMB3RS episode: "The OG" in series 2. "Remember the Name" is also used by TNT in its Emmy-award-winning Inside the NBA, during various spots during its NBA coverage.
• The track "Remember the Name" was used as part of the soundtrack in NBA Live '06 and '07.
• The track "Remember the Name" is also used for advertisements for the Razor and Mr. T Show on KNBR 680 in the Bay Area.
• Occasionally, Mike Shinoda's Linkin Park bandmate Chester Bennington has filled in the female vocals for Where'd You Go, originally sung by Holly Brook.
• Some Linkin Park material had found it's way into Fort Minor. The songs It's Going Down and Enth E Nd were often performed in Fort Minor concerts. In addition, a remix of Nobody's Listening appeared on the Fort Minor: We Major mixtape. Conversely, Shinoda now often raps a verse from a Fort Minor song as an introduction to the song Points of Authority during Linkin Park performances.

External links

• Official Site
• Fort Minor at MySpace
• Fort Minor Militia
• Official Street Team