'Right Now' connects the hood, to the 'burbs, to Iraq effortlessly while rapidly introducing a series of lonely people that are all as stuck as Eleanor Rigby. As executive producer, Jay-Z calls it during the album's intro, it's a 'big sound,' and as he focuses on 'richness of the sound' he knows this is 'something serious.' Serious is something Shinoda excels at and The Rising Tied slays when it goes epic. Softening the blow of these standard rock-dude-doing-rap clichés is the production, with constructions that are like House of Pain meets the Crystal Method and a whole synthetic orchestra in tow. On The Rising Tied, Fort Minor can strike the baller pose a little too hard and sometimes the club-minded tracks shout loud while saying nothing. Buy the album Starting at $12.99īreaking off into his own hip-hop universe, Linkin Park's rapper and in-house producer Mike Shinoda presents Fort Minor, a loose side project with a steady stream of guests, yet a surprisingly personal project too that sometimes puts the listeners right in Shinoda's shoes. Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.