Michael Kenji Shinoda is an American musician, singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer.
60 Facts About Mike Shinoda
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Mike Shinoda co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and was the band's collaborative vocalist while Chester Bennington was lead vocalist, as well as rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, primary songwriter and producer.
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Mike Shinoda later created a hip-hop-driven side project, Fort Minor, in 2004.
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Mike Shinoda has served as a producer for tracks and albums by artists such as Lupe Fiasco, Styles of Beyond and the X-Ecutioners.
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Mike Shinoda is the co-founder of Machine Shop Records, a California-based record label.
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Outside of music, Mike Shinoda is an artist and graphic designer.
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Mike Shinoda has painted several pieces of artwork, some of which have been featured in the Japanese American National Museum.
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In 2018, Mike Shinoda released his debut solo album Post Traumatic, which consists of 18 songs about his feelings following the death of his Linkin Park bandmate Bennington.
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Michael Kenji Mike Shinoda was born on February 11,1977, in Panorama City, California, and raised in Agoura Hills, California.
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Mike Shinoda's father is Japanese-American, he has a younger brother named Jason, and he was raised as a liberal Protestant.
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Mike Shinoda's mother encouraged him to take classical piano lessons when he was six.
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Mike Shinoda later added the guitar and rap-style vocals to his repertoire during his middle school and high school years.
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Mike Shinoda attended Agoura High School with future Linkin Park bandmates Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon.
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Mike Shinoda attended classes with DJ and turntablist Joseph Hahn.
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Mike Shinoda graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts in Illustration and obtained a job as a graphic designer.
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Mike Shinoda founded Linkin Park with Rob Bourdon and Brad Delson in 1996.
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Mike Shinoda is closely involved in the technical aspects of the band's recordings, and over the subsequent releases that role continued to expand.
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Mike Shinoda has contributed to the instrumental and lyrical composition on most of Linkin Park's songs.
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Bennington had a higher pitched and emotional style of singing, whereas Mike Shinoda has a baritone hip-hop style delivery.
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Mike Shinoda organized and oversaw the band's first remix album Reanimation in 2002, contributing his own production of remixes that he made in his home studio for "Crawling" and "Pushing Me Away".
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Mike Shinoda collaborated with graffiti artist DELTA, graphic designer Frank Maddocks, and bandmate Joe Hahn to prepare Reanimations artwork.
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Mike Shinoda produced the album, with his bandmates and Don Gilmore which was his first production experience.
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On this album, Mike Shinoda shared a production credit with longtime producer Rick Rubin.
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Mike Shinoda used his EDM experience he got from Avicii while working on the track "Wake Me Up", and from Steve Aoki while working on "A Light That Never Comes", to remix some songs for the album.
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Mike Shinoda worked with his old friends like DJ Vice and Ryu for the album.
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In 2014, Mike Shinoda worked with Delson to produce the band's sixth studio album, The Hunting Party, which was released on June 17,2014.
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In 2017, Mike Shinoda again worked with Delson on the production of One More Light.
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In 2004, Mike Shinoda formed a side project called Fort Minor, which he used as an avenue to further showcase his hip-hop background.
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Mike Shinoda explained the origin of the project's name in an interview stating,.
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Mike Shinoda began recording songs for this side project following the release of Collision Course in November 2004.
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Mike Shinoda told Corey Moss of MTV News that he imposed on himself a requirement to play all the instruments and write all the lyrics to the album, except for the strings, percussion, or choir parts.
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On June 21,2015, Mike Shinoda officially confirmed Fort Minor's return with a status update and the release of a new single, "Welcome".
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On January 25,2018, Mike Shinoda released the Post Traumatic EP, featuring three songs about his own feelings in the aftermath of Chester Bennington's death on July 20,2017.
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Mike Shinoda released the EP under his own name instead of under his side-project, Fort Minor.
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On March 8,2018, Mike Shinoda announced through social media that he was working on a new solo album.
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Mike Shinoda added that he was in Los Angeles filming a music video and invited fans to appear in the video, including a map of the old Tower Records in Hollywood, California.
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On October 30,2019, Mike Shinoda announced that he would be releasing a new single, "Fine," two days later, on November 1.
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In March 2020, Mike Shinoda began sharing new musical content by live streaming from his home studio.
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Mike Shinoda called these tracks, CoronaJams, after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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On February 19,2021, Mike Shinoda released a single titled "Happy Endings".
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Mike Shinoda remixed the Deftones song "Passenger" which earned him a Grammy at the 2022 Grammy Awards for the category of Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical.
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On March 10,2023, in the midst of re-releasing Linkin Park's Meteora to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Mike Shinoda released a new solo single titled "In My Head" as part of the soundtrack to the film Scream VI.
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Mike Shinoda produced and co-wrote "Still Alive", a song recorded by Demi Lovato which appears in the film.
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Mike Shinoda has had a hand in most artistic facets of Linkin Park's imagery, including the group's album artwork, band merchandise, web design, and on-stage production art.
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Mike Shinoda designed the cover art for Styles of Beyond's debut album, 2000 Fold, Saukrates' debut album, The Underground Tapes, and DJ Frane's debut album, Frane's Fantastic Boatride, all released in 1999.
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Mike Shinoda has worked on several art projects throughout his career.
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Mike Shinoda reworked the colors and materials for the shoe, and additionally designed all the packaging and print advertisements.
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Later in 2008, Mike Shinoda partnered with DC Shoes again on a second DC Remix Series project.
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In 2004, Mike Shinoda created a series of ten paintings which became the basis of the Fort Minor debut album, The Rising Tied.
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Later that year, Mike Shinoda founded a college scholarship at Art Center College of Design to benefit future illustration and graphic design students.
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Mike Shinoda has served as a music producer for several other artists and groups.
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Mike Shinoda extensively worked with Styles of Beyond between 2009 and 2012 to help produce Reseda Beach, which features his instrumental and vocal contribution.
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Mike Shinoda teamed up with former bandmate Mark Wakefield to record and release a single, "Barack Your World", in October 2008.
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Mike Shinoda contributed to the music for the CNN original documentary television series, This Is Life with Lisa Ling.
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Mike Shinoda contributed the title theme for American television series Into the Badlands.
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Mike Shinoda created and provided the theme song for Noor Tagouri's A Woman's Job.
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Mike Shinoda was greatly inspired by both rock and hip-hop acts when he was a child.
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Various critics have compared Mike Shinoda's rapping style to that of fellow rapper Eminem.
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Mike Shinoda married author Anna Hillinger in 2003, and together they have three children.
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Mike Shinoda was awarded with the Japanese American National Museum's Award of Excellence in 2006.