Released: July 29, 2002

Featuring: Phoenix Orion

Songwriter: Mark Wakefield Linkin Park

Producer: Backyard Bangers

[Intro: Chester Bennington & Phoenix Orion]
Grafitti sky

I don’t think you’re all ready
Yo, I don’t think y'all ready

[Verse 1: Chester Bennington]
Graffiti decorations under a sky of grey
This constant apprehension still giving me away
The lessons I've forgotten in spite of all I've learned

[Pre-Chorus: Chester Bennington & Mike Shinoda]
Now, I find myself in question
Point the finger at me again
Guilty by association
Point, point the finger at me again

[Chorus: Chester Bennington]
I wanna run away (I wanna run away)
I wanna know the truth (I wanna know the truth)
I wanna know the answers (I wanna know the answers)
I wanna shut the door (And open up my mind)
And open up my mind (And open up my mind)

[Verse 2: Chester Bennington]
Paper bags and angry voices under a sky of grey
This constant apprehension won't seem to go away
All my talk of starting over, these words were never true

[Pre-Chorus: Chester Bennington & Mike Shinoda]
Now, I find myself in question
Point, point the finger at me again
Guilty by association
Point, point the finger at me again

[Chorus: Chester Bennington]
I wanna run away (I wanna run away)
I wanna know the truth (I wanna know the truth)
I wanna know the answers (I wanna know the answers)
I wanna shut the door (And open up my mind)
And open up my mind, and open up my mind

[Bridge: Mike Shinoda]
Gonna run away, gonna run away, way
Gonna run away, gonna run away, way, way
Run away

[Verse 3: Phoenix Orion]
Hey, uh, y’all not ready
Hey, yo
I don’t think y’all ready for what I’m about to do
Y'all new school dudes ain’t even got no clue
How dare you forget about Bam and Zulu?
Kool Herc and Jazzy J, they paved the way
Let me spit it to y’all who said I wasn’t gon' make it
Every time I blaze it, y’all the first to hate it
My team ain't lookin' supreme to stay strong
Got the true series son, they scared to put us on
Can’t get with hybrids, get off your hiatus
Too many of y’all is dying for it so I gotta blaze it
Still repping BK, Brooklyn, B and on
Hell-fighting family, alienation
Banging hits in the backyard on a LP song
I’m a little communicator, Phoenix Orion

[Chorus: Chester Bennington]
I wanna run away (I wanna run away)
I wanna know the truth (I wanna know the truth)
I wanna know the answers (I wanna know the answers)
I wanna shut the door (And open up my mind)
And open up my mind, and open up my mind

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.