Songfacts®:

• This song was inspired by a trip the band's vocalists, Nick Hexum and Doug "S.A." Martinez, took to Jamaica. They made it their mission to avoid the tourist hangouts and join the locals, which took them to various dance halls. A reggae festival happened to be taking place at the time, which made it easy for them to absorb the sounds of the island.
  
  "We were very inspired by the rhythms going on," Hexum said in his Songfacts interview. "That was in 1998, the one year that we didn't tour in the summer. That was our one summer off that we've ever taken in our entire career. So we did a lot of putting roots down and also just traveling for fun, and we came back from that Jamaica trip and that song came out real nice and easy. It's still a crowd favorite."
• The song is a call to bring new sounds to the musical landscape, and the band actually describes how they do it in the lyric:
  
  Funk slap bass mixed with the dancehall and
  Hip-hop beats and punk guitar
• Four different acts get a positive shout-out on this track: Black Eyed Peas, NOFX, Roni Size and Mr. Vegas. These were all relatively underground artists at the time - Black Eyed Peas was still a rap trio, and had yet to add Fergie to their lineup.
• This was the first single from 311's Soundsystem album, which was co-produced by Hugh Padgham, an acclaimed British producer known for his work with Sting, David Bowie and Genesis.
• The video was directed by Kevin Kerslake, whose work includes "This Love" by Pantera and "Soul to Squeeze" by Red Hot Chili Peppers.