Mike Shinoda discussed Linkin Park’s impact on broadening the horizons of rock and hip-hop fans by merging the two styles together through their music, telling Radio.com during a recent interview :
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“I grew up listening to all kinds of stuff. I understood genres and when I was growing up, definitely people were into certain genres.
“I’m actually proud that our band had a role in disassembling all of that. Like, hip-hop kids would cite Linkin Park as the first rock band they ever listed to, and rock kids would cite Linkin Park as the band that introduced them to rap.
“I knew that groups have been doing it for forever before we did, it was just a different version of it. I grew up listening to Public Enemy, who mixed rap and rock; Run DMC had a ton of rock references and their stuff and they approached rap like a rock band.”
During the rest of the conversation, Mike focused on his new solo effort “Post Traumatic,” saying about the collaborators he picked for the album:
“The collaborations on the record started with people that I knew who understood where I was coming from, who had kind of lived through a version of what I lived through. Because they couldn’t be a tourist, you know, they couldn’t just like show up, do a vocal and pretend they understand if they didn’t understand.
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“There’s nothing wrong with that – actually I’m glad that you don’t understand – but that’s kind of one of the things that tied it all together. The record is so personal, and to communicate my story properly it had to be on my own.”