text: The lyric, "the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire; we don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn" is originally from a song by Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three from 1984 called "The Roof is on Fire". The lyric "we don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn" is also present on the 1994 song "Burn" by Rancid on their album Let's Go.
  Additionally, the song makes a modified quote from the Pixies song "Monkey Gone to Heaven", with the lyrics, "if man is five and the devil is six then that must make me seven / this honky's gone to heaven" rather than "so if man is five / then the devil is six / then God is seven / this monkey's gone to heaven". The song is also musically similar to the latter half of the Pixies song "The Happening" from their album Bossanova.
  Critical reception
  Larry Flick from Billboard commented on the song, "Is the world ready—or in need—of a new act mining ground broken by the Beastie Boys and Ugly Kid Joe a number of years ago? Probably not, but here comes the Bloodhound Gang anyway. And this (...) proves to be quite the guilty pleasure. The words of this chugging funk/rocker are extremely amusing and are delivered with a monotone howl that gets its bounce from grinding turntable scratching and fuzz guitar lines."
  Matt Diehl of Entertainment Weekly wrote of the song, "If you think mumbling hip-hop slang with self-conscious Caucasian stiffness is funny, this dud’s for you."