Mike Shinoda's Brooklyn Nods to Notorious B.I.G.

[LPLStaff]

Night one of Linkin Park's North American Tour was eventful in Brooklyn, with the first proper show Faint closer in North America since the beginning of 2011 and a very good mid-set performance of the fan-favorite track From The Inside.

 

However, that's only scratching the surface for unique moments in the show. As fans have observed on the From Zero Tour, Mike has started picking pre-show songs with the band that play on the From Zero countdown before the show as well as adding fun moments in the show that change every night. Mike raps a verse over his solo medley (When They Come For Me/Remember The Name) every time it is played, as well as a verse over the bridge of Bleed It Out. To top it off, Overflow has started getting synth intros by Mike -  things like Depeche Mode, Metallica, and more. We are tracking ALL of these every show over on our 2025 tour page.

 

In Brooklyn, Mike took things a step further and intertwined quite a few of these moments together in tribute to Brooklyn's own, the legendary Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie). This was the first time he made connections like this throughout the show in tribute to another legendary musician.

 

The pre-show song for the show kicked things off as Mike selected "Hypnotize" by Biggie. In terms of verses during the show, he rapped verse 3 of Linkin Park's "Until It Breaks" over his solo medley transition, which has a nod to Biggie in the lyrics and draws from his track "Who Shot Ya": 

 

it's something for your people on the block to black out and rock to
give me what you need like Poppa, who shot you?
"separate the weak from the obsolete"

 

 

During "Bleed It Out", he said, "I want to do something very special right now" and rapped verse 1 of the iconic track "Notorious Thugs" over the bridge. Along with this being a nice nod to Biggie, this is really interesting for Linkin Park and Fort Minor fans additionally because the verse starts:

 

armed and dangerous
ain't too many can bang with us
straight up weed, no angel dust
label us notorious

 

Recognize anything? The verse from Fort Minor's "There They Go", originally from the We Major Mixtape (and later as a bonus track on The Rising Tied), starts: 

 

armed and dangerous bitch
y'all can't really hang with us in this
everyone's so afraid of us, shit
makes me wanna hang it up and quit

 

 

 

 

 

Again, this is the first time Mike has looped these different parts of the show together in this manner, and we are excited to see what else happens as the tour progresses.

 

And if you want a general New York nod, the intro of "Overflow" was the Love Theme from The Godfather... yet another tip of the hat to the area.

 

Well done by Mike!