74 Quotes by Mike Shinoda

It's a hip-hop record, but it's a musician-based hip-hop record,

The album comes out November 22 one-one two-two, so it's easy to remember.

It's called Fort Minor instead of my name because there is a bunch of other people involved in the project. But I only wanted to work with family and friends; people who I feel are really close to me and we see eye-to-eye. Besides that, Fort has a militant meaning and Minor in music is a smaller, darker, sadder note, so the name is a reflection of the music.

In high school I was making beats for my friends and for myself and rapping over them.

But I obviously wouldn't have done the album unless the other guys gave their blessing.

I find that the things that really, you know, get us fired up, tend to be things that, for example, things that you talk about tonight, what we see in the news.

I was a producer and rapper before Linkin Park. Once the band took off, it was the center of my focus. A couple of years ago, I started missing doing straight-up hip hop, and that's when Fort Minor began.

For me, I feel like, if the right movie comes along, I'd do it again. It's not about the budget. It's about whether it's something that I'm excited to work on.

If I weren't making music, I'd be the kid who writes into the magazines and says, "why don't you guys ever cover anything that's different? Hip hop is so much of the same thing over and over again." I love hip hop, so I wanted to make an album from that standpoint, 'cause that's who I am.