“The Fire” by The Roots featuring John Legend

"The Fire" comes from How I Got Over, the Roots' ninth studio album, which Def Jam released in June 2010. Black Thought is on the mic with John Legend stepping in as the guest vocalist, and the writing credit goes to Black Thought, Questlove, Dice Raw and Rick Friedrich, the band members who produced most of the album. Here Questlove, Dice Raw and Friedrich share the production with Richard Nichols, Friedrich also recorded it with Nick Banns and Jon Smeltz, and Jason Goldstein mixed.

The album around it is a hushed, somber hip-hop record that keeps reaching into soul, funk, gospel and indie rock while it wrestles with self-determination, existential doubt and middle-class angst in Black America. Robert Christgau later called it the Roots' most substantial album and the best of the 2010s.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.