Mike Shinoda (from Linkin Park and Fort Minor) lists JJFP as one of his main influences growing up

[Jonny 5]

must be a love hate thing then cos i freakin loved it...

[Luigie]

must be a love hate thing then cos i freakin loved it...

i decided to check it, and i like it too

Edited October 24, 2006 by Luigie

[WesSyde]

First off, I would like to say that the following is my opinion, I'm not trying to start a debate or argument at all. And you will not change my opinion of this: but Fort Minor is bad. It is cool that Mike lists JJFP, and other great artists tho'. But I think that maybe one or two albums down the road, Fort Minor will be good, but that first album...I just don't like what I've heard from it.

wow this is so ironic. i downloaded the fort minor album when it first came out but i never listened to it at all except Remember the Name. i totally neglected it until last week when i had some free time and i listened to it. i quickly became addicted to it and burnt it to cd so i could bump it in my car. i think the skills, beats, and subject matter is all really good. i dont understand how fans of hip hop could find it weak. listen to Back Home, Right Now, Red to Black, Kenji, and In Stereo.

[JumpinJack AJ]

I didn't expect 2 really like the album and didn't even check 4 it. But when i heard it, i liked it. It's not one of my top favs, but i definitly liked it enuff 2 go out and get it. I haven't listened 2 it very often, but when it comes 2 Hip-Hop and Rap albums coming out regularly, it's definitly way above average when it comes 2 skills and quality. I like 2 or 3 Linkin Park songs, but their music doesn't intrest me.

[Turntable]

I have to agree with Sonic. You know in some way the Fort Minor stuff is good, and sometimes I can enjoy it for a while. But most of the time the whole rapping thing seems to come out very forced, especaly with Mike. So I'd much rather listen to groups from which you can hear that they are borne to flow. Like Sonic said, they need to practise a lil more, I think. Maybe 2 or 3 more albums down the row, and its all good.

[dparrott]

Rap/rock is a dying trend and the music world is better off without it. Call me old-fashioned or closed-minded, but the only good rap/rock band I've heard is Urban Dance Squad, who helped start it all and were ahead of their time.

Rappers trying to rock: Usually good

Rockers trying to rap: Usually bad

[WesSyde]

i dont look at it as rock/rap or as a rocker trying to rap

i look at it as hip hop. just cuz it has some guitars in it doesnt mean its not hip hop. hip hop cant be defined by the way the beat sounds. i dont look at is as some rock guy trying to rap, i look at it as some hip hop cat whos lived the hip hop life and has some stories to tell.

[Jonny 5]

doesn't shinoda pretty much only rap for linkin park anyway? not so much of a rocker i don't think

[KevTastic]

Doesn't mean he isn't a Rocker. He performs in a Rock band.

Everyone pick up the soundtrack to the film Judgment Night. Nuff Said

[Vipa]

He's been rapping since the group started...I mean way back, when they had a little 4 track Demo, and went by a different name. Their lead singer was a different guy at the time, but Mike was still rapping..

He even said, as a kid the first rap video he ever saw was Biz Markies "Vapors", and he thought it was dope. He just grew listening to more than one genre, and liked it all...

Just because he's in a rock band, and likes rock music doesn't mean he doesn't know hip hop, and that you can't take him seriously as a rapper.

Edited October 26, 2006 by Vipa

[bigted]

Hip-hop really is a combination of many forms of music as well, the originators like Afrika Bambataa say that all the time

[PhiL]

Linkin Park isnt a straight up rock band, their a hybrid band (hence the name Hybrid Theory) of different musical styles blended together, i mean if they were a straight up rock band then Mike wouldn't evan be in Linkin Park

Edited October 26, 2006 by PhiL

[KevTastic]

Rock is too a huge a genre. It covers most music these days.

[dparrott]

I'm not saying that rap and rock do not work together, Run-DMC were doin it in 84. Kid Rock and the "rappers" of Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit may be good for the music that they do, but they do not have the skills of rappers like Will Smith, Suga Free, Eminem or E-40.

You can put whatever label you want to put on the music, but the fact is those bands do not get played on BET, nor on radio stations that play Ice Cube, Xzibit and Too Short.

And the Judgement Night sdtk was good because it had real MC's on it.

[PhiL]

Fort Minor was basicly Mike going back to his roots cause before Linkin Park was evan thought of Mike would just make Hip hop music and produce beats with his friends but when Linkin Park took of Mike didn't really have any time to go back to his hip hop roots.

The story behind Fort Minor is that when Mike started making beats for it he never intended to release any of it, it just starting out as an hobby and something that he would do for fun but when people heard the stuff he was producing he was getting really positive reactions and being told that he should make an album. When the Fort Minor record was being made Mike only wanted to work with his personal friends because he didn't want any big hip hop names to collaborate with so that the album would sell.

So Mike was basicly doing hip hop music before Linkin Park evan took off