Mike Shinoda Rapping in San Francisco
Michael Kenji Shinoda (born February 11, 1977) is an American musician and artist, best known as the founder, rhythm guitarist, frontman, current lead vocalist, keyboardist, primary songwriter and producer of American rock band Linkin Park. Born and raised in California, his father is American-Japanese and his mother encouraged him to take piano lessons at age 6 and his interest eventually grew into guitar and other areas of music. He founded Linkin Park, then known as Xero alongside high school friends drummer Rob Bourdon and lead guitarist Brad Delson. They eventually recruited DJ Mr Hahn and bassist Phoenix, the latter of whom, left for 1-1.5 years til late 2000. Their initial vocalist was Mark Wakefield and they spent a considerable deal of time searching for a lead vocalist til they eventually found now late lead vocalist Chester Bennington, who helped them become a hit with their first album, Hybrid Theory. They would continue extreme success with their next album, Meteora, which featured their arguably most powerful famous song, Numb. As Shinoda and Bennington would work with their side projects, Fort Minor and Dead by sunrise respectively, their next album, Minutes to Midnight was put on hold. The album was not as popular due to a decrease in rock music and vocals from Shinoda. Their 4th album, A Thousand Suns, was much more successful and took the band to new styles with their music. Living Things, Their 5th album was released on June 26, 2012 and had much more rap than the last 2 albums. Delson Helped Shinoda produce The Hunting Party, the band's 6th album released on June 17, 2014 and was the 1st album of Linkin Park to have feauturing artists from other bands. Their 7th and last album with Bennington, One More Light, started production in mid 2015 and was released on May 19, 2017. The album was heavily criticized due to being a pop album rather than rock, a decrease in drums and vocals from Shinoda and to an extent at least, near 0 rap etc. 2 Months later, Chester hung himself and the band went on a temporary hiatus. They're still on hiatus and Mike for the meantime in late 2017, early 2018, became a solo artist and performed lots before the Coronavirus pandemic. How Linkin Park will continue is currently unknown.