Fort Minor was a hip hop side project by American musician Mike Shinoda, who is better known as the rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, producer, and rapper of the rock band Linkin Park.

Shinoda uses the name Fort Minor for his collaborations with Ryan Patrick Maginn (Ryu) and Takbir Bashir (Tak), who themselves hail from the underground hip hop group Styles of Beyond.

[3] Fort Minor: We Major was a mixtape by Shinoda and DJ Green Lantern to promote his upcoming studio album.

[4] Jay-Z, who had previously collaborated with Linkin Park on the 2004 album Collision Course, was the executive producer for The Rising Tied.

[5] 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.

[7] Another track, "Kenji" describes the experiences of a Japanese-American family during the Japanese American internment of World War II.

In October 2013, on the Nick Catchdubs remix of Linkin Park's "Skin to Bone", Ryu from Styles of Beyond stated that Fort Minor's mission is not over, hinting at a second studio album.

[15][16] Fort Minor also appeared as the musical guest on the TBS late-night talk show Conan on June 22, 2015.

However, ever since Chester Bennington's suicide on July 20, 2017, Shinoda has been performing and releasing songs as a solo act under his real name.