Fort Minor was an American hip hop music act from Los Angeles. It was a small side project of Mike Shinoda, who is better known as the rapper and co-founder of the band Linkin Park. Shinoda was the only member. He wanted to make this side-project because he only had limited vocal credited in Linkin Park and he could not always use hip-hop style. Fort Minor's first album was "The Rising Tied", which was released 22 November 2005.