 "Delivering the lines "I know you've been wait, you've been waitin a long time for me/But if you wait a little while longer, this is how it'll be, Aaliyah promises to be hot and ready for her patient lover on this enticing opening offering".According to Bob Waliszewski's Plugged In review on the website Focus on the Family, the song "celebrates passionate sex-without suggesting a marital context".Shannon Marcec from Complex felt that the remix version of "Hot Like Fire" was better than the original version.