RFI : "We don't need no water / Let the motherf***er burn"

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It's mentioned in that Bloodhound Gang song and a Pharcyde song... Where did the phrase originate, and what's the context?

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 21:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three - "The Roof is On Fire" is the name of the cut. From 1984 I believe.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

You can find it on this in-print comp, or you know, download it.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 21:11 (twenty-two years ago)

The Bloodhound Gang got it from DJ Kool, I bet.

And didn't George Clinton do it before Rockmaster Scott??

― chuck, Wednesday, 18 June 2003 22:01 (twenty-two years ago)

...the really disturbing question is, who did Coal Chamber get it from?

― cis (cis), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 22:04 (twenty-two years ago)

if my mother knows it, it means it's now part of ambient american culture

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 22:06 (twenty-two years ago)

hmmm... you might be right about that Chuck! I do seem to remember that refrain somewhere in the Clinton catalog. I might have to pull out my p-funk records tonight - been meaning to ever since Mark S did his thread on them.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 22:07 (twenty-two years ago)

"Home Alone" by R. Kelly & Keith Murray also quotes it.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 29 June 2003 07:25 (twenty-two years ago)

and Princess Superstar/Disco D in "Fuck Me On The Dancefloor" "...we don't need no water i'm about to fucking cum..."

― Wyndham Earl, Sunday, 29 June 2003 10:57 (twenty-two years ago)

THATS WOT YOUR MUM SAID LAST NIGHT

― PACKA-9-MILLI, Sunday, 29 June 2003 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

i'd bet they got it from 'revenge of the nerds'.

― keith (keithmcl), Sunday, 29 June 2003 15:13 (twenty-two years ago)

oh wait, that was something different

― keith (keithmcl), Sunday, 29 June 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

So did it come from a P-Funk track?

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Thursday, 2 December 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

mebbe same track Talking Heads swiped "Burning Down the House" from, ya?

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Thursday, 2 December 2004 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm sad to say I'm fairly certain that this did not originate with Clinton - its certainly not on any of the Parliament or Funkadelic records of the 70s.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 2 December 2004 22:59 (twenty-one years ago)

legend has it it that it is a reference to MOVE, any backing docs on this?

― H (Heruy), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:20 (twenty-one years ago)

hm, they were that environmentalist/Black Panther off-shoot that the cops firebombed in Cleveland, right? Would make sense... seems like a pretty apocryphal reference tho...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Westbam's "The Roof Is On FIre" made it go bang, house style later on too . . .

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:58 (twenty-one years ago)

this was chanted by the crowd cheering on fistfights at lunch at my high school sometimes, a few years after the rockmaster scott track came out

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 3 December 2004 01:32 (twenty-one years ago)

the MOVE firebombing was in philadelphia, not cleveland, fwiw, and it was in 1985, the same year the rock master scott song was a hit. no idea if there's any connection.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 3 December 2004 01:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember reading that "burn, baby, burn" was a slogan during the detroit riots in 67 (?) - & it was apparently inspired by a local dj's previously innocuous catch-phrase ... easy to imagine a jump from "burn,baby,burn" to "burn, motherfucker, burn"

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 3 December 2004 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

here's the story: http://www.magnificentmontague.com/

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 3 December 2004 01:55 (twenty-one years ago)

ok, watts, not detroit... and check out the mp3's on that site, his theme song is awesome

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 3 December 2004 02:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Clinton, from 1986's anti-hip-hop "Mix-Master Suite": "The roof, the roof, the roof ain't on fire/You won't need no water/There'll be nothin' left to burn!" And: "The roach, the roach, the roach is on the wall/You don't need no Raid/Let the motherfunker crawl!"

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 3 December 2004 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

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