The Rising Tied (2005)

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda takes the rock out of the rap-rock equation on his solo disc The Rising Tied, exec-produced by Jay-Z. The result is more compelling and less knuckle-headed than what Shinoda puts out with his lumbering full-time band. Flowing like Eminem on Ambien, he blows up about the state of the world over brittle hip-hop beats, and raps about his Japanese-American father's internment during WWII (''Kenji'') without sounding absurd.