
It was the Grammy Awards, 28 February 2006, and a visibly flustered Mike Shinoda was stood at the podium.
The Linkin Park rapper and songwriter had just been presented with the award for Best Rap/ Sung Collaboration, a gong the band had won, along with rapper Jay-Z, for their track Numb/Encore. The song had been the standout cut from their now iconic, 2004 MTV-sponsored collab, Collison Course, which had seen them mash together the soaring nu metal of their 2003 megahit Numb, with Jay-Z’s soul-inflected Encore.