woot. this album is pretty neat. its certainly a breath of fresh air in the hip-hop/rap scene lately, what with all these 'niggas' rapping about hos, drugs, cars, cash and sex, which is starting to get extremely grinding. shinoda is absolutely masterful at sampling some really sublime beats and manages to infuse an awesome sense of flow in most of his tracks. i just LOVE the beats. there are some great cameos from some of rap's most prominent individuals (common, kenna, black thought, even john legend makes a guest appearance). the production is also simply superb.

my fav tracks at the moment:
1. back home - brilliant beat. common spits some really excellent verses

2. kenji - a very poignant track that talks about shinoda's japanese roots and the hardships his family had to endure during WWII.

3. red to black - awesome guitar hook! very strong LP undertones

4. right now - f*cking awesome piano track, f*cking awesome beat! I LOVE THIS SONG. this is probably my favourite in the whole album.

big two thumbs up from me its a real shame they chose to showcase 'Believe Me' as the first single in msia, cos it's one of the weakest songs in the album imo.

This post has been edited by incognito: Nov 26 2005, 11:16 AM

woot. the new single sounds pretty neat. glad to see that they're returning to their hybrid theory roots, whilst at the same time bringing in some heavier elements to their music. nu-metal is officially dead then i guess