Fire in the Hole (album)

Fire in the Hole is the fifth studio album by American hip hop group Brand Nubian. It was released on August 10, 2004 via Babygrande Records. Recording sessions took place at State Street Studios in Brooklyn. Production was handled by members DJ Alamo, Grand Puba, Sadat X, and Lord Jamar, who also served as executive producer together with Chuck Wilson. It features guest appearances from Starr and Aisha Mike. The album made it to No. 57 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in the United States.

Critical reception
Fire in the Hole was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 68, based on seven reviews.

Steve 'Flash' Juon of RapReviews.com praised the album, saying: "may be one of 2004's most important rap records". Spin reviewer called it "a snappier comeback than 1998's Foundation". Writing for Pitchfork, Jamin Warren stated: "unfortunately, Fire in the Hole fails to invoke any effective nostalgia as it phlegmatically wanders through 12 solid but unexciting tracks".

In mixed reviews, AllMusic's Andy Kellman wrote: "few will ever refer to this as a classic, though even fewer will ever think of this as a poor showing". Gabe Gloden of Stylus Magazine found: "unfortunately, even when they attempt to paint a serious social commentary, they can’t seem to suppress their sophomoric potty humor".

Personnel

 * Lorenzo "Lord Jamar" DeChalus – vocals, producer (tracks: 1-5, 8-12), additional producer (track 7) , recording, executive producer
 * Maxwell "Grand Puba" Dixon – vocals, producer (tracks: 7, 11)
 * Derek "Sadat X" Murphy – vocals, producer (track 3)
 * K. "DJ Alamo" Jones – producer (tracks: 4, 6)
 * Starr – vocals (tracks: 3, 5)
 * Aisha Mike – vocals (track 11)
 * Bernard Grobman – guitar (track 5)
 * Chris Conway – mixing
 * Emily Lazar – mastering
 * Sarah Register – additional mastering
 * Charles "Chuck" Wilson, Jr. – executive producer
 * Jeff Chenault – art direction, design
 * Dennis Edwards – photography
 * Seth Kushner – photography
 * Jesse Stone – marketing