personally know before the album's production. Shinoda consulted Jay-Z and Machine Shop Recordings A&R and Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson to decide which songs to make the final cut of the album. Some parts of the conversation are included in the album. Shinoda felt comfortable working with Delson, saying that "since this record is coming out on Machine Shop, our label, I could pick anyone I wanted to work on it, so I chose Brad as our A&R guy, which is hilarious because ... Brad's not a label guy, he's my friend." Shinoda's motive for The Rising Tied was to express his hip hop background after his new experiences in the music industry. He stated that he became "antsy...I wanted to make hip-hop again. You know, I always have to mix it with other things, and I didn't want to have to mix it. I just wanted it to be pure hip-hop." He explained the name of his project and the album in an interview with Fixins Music: Style and composition The lyrical content contains many political elements and personal experiences by Shinoda. "Get Me Gone" is about the skepticism and criticism about Shinoda during the early days of Linkin Park. "Kenji" tells of a Japanese American who, along with his family, is sent to an internment camp in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Shinoda stated in an interview that his father was born during the Second World War, and was interned alongside his family. He interviewed his father and aunt (in which excerpts were included in the song). About his aunt, he said, "She was there when people were getting pulled out of their houses, and they had absolutely nothing to do with anything [involving the war]. It'd be your average neighbor — or you — getting pulled out of your house because you were racially profiled as somebody dangerous." The album uses numerous behind-the-scenes conversations. Jay-Z can be heard in the opening track "Introduction"; A conversation between Jay-Z, Shinoda and Brad Delson can be heard at the end of "Where'd You Go" and into "In Stereo"; Shinoda talking about their label's original skepticism about him rapping during the early Linkin Park days can be heard at the end of "Believe Me" and into "Get Me Gone". Some of these can even be heard on the Making of DVD. Critical reception The album was praised by