What's the best Mike Shinoda rapping era?

There we go. I chose 2007-2010. His maturity and emotion of his vocals improved greatly. Wasn't just a scramble of words from a chemistry textbook or lame lyrics about how he was so hurt. Fort Minor had me really struggling though.

 

I chose 2000-2003 cause Mike rapped in blue hair! lol

 

Voted for present all because of When They Come For Me.

 

Fort Minor onwards.

 

Fort Minor, because I love it.

 

Present because it's more mature and flows more naturally in their songs.

 

Definitely Fort Minor. However I feel his rapping for Xero was awesome.

 

Without a doubt.. Xero - HT. Just lyrical geniussss, look at just High Voltage and Dedicated, also Its Goin Down is one of his best. Much better than "try to catch up motherfuckar" and "erase all the pain until its gone." also, Reading my eyes is some crazy shizz biz.

 

When They Come For Me > Anything else he's rapped. Only Xero stuff comes close.

 

His older raps were just a collection of huge words that found away to flow together. His new stuff is alot more metaphoric using phrases we know. Hands Held High and When They Come For Me alone stole the vote for me.

 

Lyrically 96-99
Vocally - Fort Minor

 

Circa 1996 - 2002.

Lyrically creative, aggressive, and quick in his execution. Mike needs to head back into that mindset and further explore that realm again.

Voted: Xero era.

 

Minutes to Midnight to now.

 

I think his Xero, Hybrid Theory EP, and HT demo stuff was basically nothing but metaphors. And I think he delivered his lines much better back then, too.

 

Well this split pretty even :|

 

Definitely FM onwards. He fleshed out more as a rapper from that point on. Before he sounded too tame.

He still has a long way to go though. Like on a lot of the songs from the FM album his flow/rhyme patterns aren't impressive.

 

I think he's been devolving as a rapper since the album Hybrid Theory, at the latest. He's become a much better musician, but he's too tame now compared to his earlier years imo. How people think he's gotten better at rapping kind of baffles me. What has he improved on?

 

Vocal presence, lyrics, subject matters.. all have improved since FM imo. I see it as a natural progression that paralleled with him becoming a better musician in general. He has broadened out his horizon a lot more and has let loose. Before his rapping sounded too constricted, like he's holding himself back. Since FM his rapping has gotten more character.