Maybe it was my dialect that got in the way of how I worded it and what I meant to say. I've been guilty of that before and if It caused any misunderstanding, I apologize for that.
Fort Minor strikes me as just a very specific phase that Mike had in his journey. Of course I have no idea that his thoughts are, but I get the impression from the kind of stuff Linkin Park does now that Mike has come along way in his tastes in music and as a maker of music that I don't think it's something he's all that interested in revisiting. And I'll totally second the idea of a collaboration with Chino. Razors Out is a ridiculously sick song. Mike is kind of a less whiney Trent Reznor, I'd like to see his next project be more about making ridiculously cool beats like in that song.
I would love to hear some new beats by Mike. For me the rising tied had so many memorable songs like "In Stereo" and "Feel Like Home." Although I do feel that Mike is channeling his Fort Minor energy through Linkin Park as he has mentioned before.
Yeah, no doubt that Fort Minor was a necessary step for Shinoda. A bridge between his rapping on "Meteora" and his rapping on "Midnight". His lyricism and rapping both took a big step forward, in my opinion, after "The Rising Tied".
Hasn't Mike himself said on several occasions that LP now allows him to do what he'd want to do in FM anyway, what with ATS and LT being so experimental and void of any constructs?