Mike Shinoda

About

Also known as: Michael Kenji Shinoda, Spike Minoda

Mike Shinoda wears a lot of hats, and he wears all of them well. As co founder, primary songwriter, and producer of Linkin Park, he shaped one of the biggest rock acts of the 2000s, engineering the breakthrough debut Hybrid Theory and going on to win a Grammy for his production work on the Jay Z mashup EP Collision Course. His baritone hip hop delivery sits alongside Chester Bennington's more emotional style across the Linkin Park catalog, and he has also produced for artists like Lupe Fiasco and the X Ecutioners. Outside the band, his hip hop side project Fort Minor gave him room to dig further into rap territory, and in 2018 he released Post Traumatic, his first proper solo album, a raw 18 track record processing his grief over the loss of Bennington. The videos for tracks like Over Again, Crossing A Line, and Running From My Shadow all appeared that same year, sketching out an intensely personal chapter in a career that has always moved between genres with ease.