After reading a review of Living Things, where the reviewer compared his raps to Dr Suess, I'm interested in knowing what the community thinks about how good or bad he is at rapping. Own opinion will come later, but I will say I think he's on of the better rappers in the industry right now, better than stuff like "BLACK AND YELLOW BLACK AND YELLOW BLACK AND YELLOW BLACK AND YELLOW".
You know what it is! Yeah...anyways. He's got his ups, and he's got his downs. I love his style in all of Hybrid Theory, and although not nearly as energetic or lyrically deep, it was similar in Meteora. He goes off on these really weird tangents sometimes though. When They Come For Me works well, but it's not nearly as good as his earlier style. It sounds alright in Burn It Down, Lost in the Echo is great, Until It Breaks is phenomenal, although I think Lies Greed Misery is his worst rap ever. I'm also not fond of the style in Waiting For The End. All that said, Bleed It Out is my favorite rapping EVER. Energetic, flows well, and sounds good on the record and on stage. Overall I'd say he's very gifted, this video used to always give me chills: [video=youtube;YRmyPVqIyBQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRmyPVqIyBQ[/video] I will say this tough: Mike Shinoda rapes the living fuck out of every one of those pansy ass bitches in Hollywood Undead.
High Voltage is by far his best work ^^^ I give credit to Mike and the work hes done on Reanimation for getting me hooked onto hip-hop
I don't really know how to rank him in relative terms, but writing (good) rap lyrics ain't easy. Trust me, I've tried. For that much I give credit to anyone who can do it, and he can at least in some capacity.
He's mediocre. He's not terrible but he's also not mindblowing. He can come up with some multisyllabic rhymes and have an animated presence, but he doesn't have anywhere near the charisma of Jay-Z or approach the level of lyricism displayed by Nas. He also doesn't have Black Thought's consistency or Pharoahe Monch's breadth of subject matter. What he has going for him is that he's the best emcee as far as rap-rock is concerned and is also an able producer.
He's not phenomenal but not awful, just alright. There are plenty of better rappers out there, most of which you won't hear on the radio.
Op hated on Wiz, I hate on thread. Black and Yellow is a banger doe. nad he's in my top 50 at minimum. prolly top 11-20. IDK, have to remake a list. He's prolly not in top 10 though. IDK, he's good and he works for Linkin Park, and I like him as a musician above most of them but as strictly rapping ability, he's not the best. but he is top 10 lyricists I'd say for rappers prolly
I like his metaphorical rapping more, like the one used on Hybrid Theory. ''I watch how the Moon sits in the sky on a dark night, shining with the light from the Sun, the Sun doesn't give a light to the moon assuming the Moon's gonna owe it one..'' His style on Living Things is still good, especially his rap on Victimized, which is to me, one of his best. Anyway, he's great, but definitely not as good as Eminem or Jay Z. But, he's better then Wiz Khalifa. Technically. I mean, listen to Work Hard Play Hard, his whole first verse is ''something something ni**a''.
I hate rappers who sing about drugs, sex, money and partying and all that crap we're given today. Mike, however, doesn't. But it's not only for that reason. He's a very precise lyricist and for him to write those verses, I simply admire his rapping.
I think he's a little more animated now compared to the olden days. He sounds a bit more aggressive and edgy which is good, but his rhyme schemes and lyrics aren't all that amazing to me. It's just... there. It would be cool if he switches up his flow and try something different once in a while. But for a rapper in a band, Mike does the job.
I thinks he's amazing but I don't listen to hip hop or rap. I escpeccialy love how his lyrics aren't about sex, drugs, gangster life or excesively use the N word.Following Living Things I actually like his singing better than his rapping now though.
Better than he lets on in LIES GREED MISERY and BURN IT DOWN. I think what makes his rapping better is his interaction with Chester, it just seems to mesh together really well.
Mike's alright and has his style down pretty good, but a lot of his lines are pretty awkward to me. He's alright for someone who does like 3/4 verses every two and half years, but he's not even as good as Wiz Khalifa. [youtube]VvCnhyAP1m8[/youtube]
You guys overestimate how much drugs and sex are used in rapping. Listen to underground rappers. Listen to storytelling rappers. Listen to lyrical rappers. You guys are basing information of a false perception of hip hop music
Mike is good at rapping. Is he good to mainstream's hip-hop standard? No. Mike raps like it's the late 80s