Released: December 5, 2006

Songwriter: Mark Wakefield Mike Shinoda

Producer: Mike Shinoda Rick Rubin

[Verse 1: Mike Shinoda]
The microphone molester, machete undresser
"Stupid-dope-fresh" type shit resurrector
Top gun, miramar, best-of-the-best-er
The leave-an-MC-peace-in-rest-er

Skill tester, the flex-the-gunner
The make-funner, the adversary make runner
Make summer cold with rhymes I spit
Kick gift to lifted delinquent wit

I be prophet, my rhyme—top it? Stop it
Fly like rocket when I rock it
Lock it down with this perverse verse
Every fucking curse, a burst of hurt

Move crowds; physical fitness rhymes
Coke heads couldn't do my lines
I'm decorated like Christmas pines
My battalion rocks
MC's become silhouettes of chalk

[Chorus: Chester Bennington]
Reading my eyes will say it in many ways
Losing my pride will save it in many days

[Verse 2: Mike Shinoda]
Hit the dirt, 'cause the words I spit
Will do more than just rip your shirt
I'll bitch slap your soul, contact the track control!
You're coming at me? You can't hack it, though!

So ridiculous, watching my crew get sick of this
Wickedness, pitching this
Lyrical viciousness to crews and cliques
Made of men and mistresses

This is my life, the twilight in the fight night
And trying to see nothing but the highlights
When I write, these eyes on horizons
Die for my song, cry rhymes in krylon

Fire on, move men telekinetically
Esoterically beat-speaking with clarity
Feel my verity, heroism of heresy
And sever every MC I see with severity!

[Chorus: Chester Bennington]
Reading my eyes will say it in many ways
Losing my pride will save it in many days

[Bridge: Chester Bennington]
Why not, what I came
Why not, what I came
Why not, what I came
Why not give me what I came to deserve?
Why not give me what I came to believe?
Why not give me what I came to deserve?
Why not give me what I came to believe?
Why?

[Chorus: Chester Bennington]
Reading my eyes will say it in many ways
Losing my pride will save it in many days

Linkin Park

Hybrid Theory isn’t just the title of Linkin Park’s chart-topping debut album, but a career mission statement.

From day one, the same six players (lead vocalist Chester Bennington, drummer/percussionist Rob Bourdon, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave ‘Phoenix’ Farrell, DJ/Programmer Joe Hahn, and keyboardist, guitarist, and co-lead vocals Mike Shinoda) built the band by fusing all their favorite styles of music into one unmistakable signature sound. With each album, Linkin Park defiantly challenges themselves and their fans by blasting into new musical territory. After setting the template for rock that incorporated hip-hop influences with Hybrid Theory and Meteora, they shifted gears completely and defied expectations with the polychromatic Minutes to Midnight, and again with the esoteric A Thousand Suns, before melding a piece of them all into 2012’s LIVING THINGS. With their 2014 release and heaviest offering in years, The Hunting Party, Linkin Park manage to capture their ever-innovative spirit with a hunger seldom seen in bands on their seventh album. One More Light (2017) is an interesting personal album, filled with a lot of emotion.

Unfortunately, on July 20, 2017, Chester unexpectedly died by suicide, shocking and saddening both fans and his own band members alike.