Artist: Fort Minor

CD Review

CD Title: The Rising Tied

Record Label: Warner Bros / Wea

By Adam Bowman

Let's not mince words, this album is exactly what anybody who has listened to Linkin Park would expect it to be. The debut of Fort Minor is Linkin Park sans guitars and Chester Bennington, and the end results are hit and miss. When "The Rising Tied" hits, though, it nails a bullseye. "Remember The Name" is the perfect track to kick the schtick off with a pinpoint perfect chorus and a beat that has just enough swagger to let you know it's badass without coming off like Vanilla Ice circa '89. Other choice cuts come in the form of the historical "Kenji" (where Shinoda brilliantly raps the history of his ancestry, tying in very stark imagery of Japanese-American life during World War II), "Right Now", and second single "Where'd You Go", where Holly Brook shines as a sweet siren of song to Shinoda's salmagundi of both sensitivity and stoicism.

While the play does outweigh the skip, you're going to pass over a few moments. The beginning to "Red and Black" seems too much like one of Shinoda's Linkin Park mechanics, as he jumps in roughly half a beat prior to the beginning of the verse. The technique is good for hip-hop, but the words and flow he has here just doesn't lend itself well to that trick. Fortunately, that is one of the few times Shinoda's MC abilities are taken into question, as he utilizes cameos from Styles of Beyond and John Legend to help things from getting tedious. Another gripe is the boistrous nature of the record. There's just not enough of it, and elements of it ("Cigarettes" and "High Road" being prime examples) seem a bit forced. To be fair, tracks like "Petrified" and "Slip Out The Back" (featuring DJ Hahn) join up with the aforementioned "Name" to let us know Shinoda and company can back up the attitude. It is every bit what you would expect, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.