On July 4th, Kanye West announced that he would be running for president of the United States, challenging Trump and his conjectural Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

“We must now realise the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States,” West wrote in a Twitter post, adding an American flag emoji and the hashtag “#2020VISION”.

The following day, Linkin Park co-founder Mike Shinoda announced his own bid for American office (sort of.)

“I, too am running for president*,” Shinoda tweeted Sunday. The rocker continued to clarify that the asterisk in his tweet actually meant: “*have new music out.”

This is very patently a joke, and a snide dig at Kanye using political momentum as publicity to promote his latest single ‘Wash Us in the Blood,” which was released last week. However, we can’t help but envision a strange and wonderful dystopian society in which Hot Topic reigns supreme. If the Trump presidential tenure has proven anything it’s that stranger things can, and will, happen.

Mike Shinoda has spent his time in quarantine chipping away at music and art on streaming site Twitch. On July 1st, the musician announced that he he would be releasing a new album, drawn from the Twitch stream fan feedback, titled Dropped Frames, Vol. 1.

In an interview with SPIN, Shinoda described the record – his first since 2018’s Post Traumatic – as “a highlight reel of the tracks I make on the channel, but a big part of the experience is the stream itself.”

“When I start, I usually have very little idea of where it will go. What comes out is a product of the viewers’ suggestions, my spur-of-the-moment ideas, and whatever inexplicable magic is floating in between,” Shinoda added.

Describing the music as a marriage of “Mariachi,” “Bollywood hip-hop” and “90’s boy band pop” as per fan suggestions, Shinoda’s tracks will feature flute loops, Nintendo GameBoy-driven chords and fan chants submitted to him through Twitch. Three of the tracks – ‘Osiris‘, ‘Open Door‘ and ‘Super Galaxtica‘ – have already dropped ahead of the album’s release.

Back in June, Shinoda revealed that Linkin Park have unreleased music featuring late frontman Chester Bennington, with one track named ‘Friendly Fire’ that had been set to appear on 2017’s One More Light.

Much to our collective dismay, Shinoda revealed that fans are “literally are going to have to wait years to hear that song FYI.”

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine