Primarily produced by Public Enemy's production team the Bomb Squad, the album was a commercial success, peaking at 19 on the Billboard 200, and was certified platinum in the United States on June 23, 1990.

Throughout the album, Ice Cube incessantly attacks institutional racism, as well as social norms which directly or indirectly allowed the oppression of those living in the ghettos of Los Angeles to continue.

On "Endangered Species (Tales from the Darkside)", he predicts that his neighborhood would become a flash point for violence before 1992's scandal over the beating of Rodney King,[14] and takes police to task for the policies that would later lead to the L.A. riots that resulted.

Throughout the album, Cube takes some controversial stands, referring to certain types of African-Americans as "Oreo cookies", an epithet implying that they appear black on the outside, but have, internally, negative white tendencies.

A later skit, "The Drive By", returns to the same theme at the end, with newscaster Tom Brokaw reporting on rioting, stating: "Outside the south central area, few cared about the violence because it didn't affect them."

"[24] The Source commented that Ice Cube's performances are given "the perfect backdrop" by the Bomb Squad, who the magazine said had "really outdone" themselves by integrating "funky pimp type grooves" into their "metallic bum-rush style of beats".

[18] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Greg Sandow viewed AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted as "an important social document, but not necessarily cohesive art", nonetheless acknowledging that "Ice Cube emerges as a rapper most original for his uncompromising tone.

"[17] While deeming the album musically "as original as A Tribe Called Quest, and probably doper", The Village Voice's Robert Christgau found Ice Cube's lyrics generally distasteful "despite his gift for rhyme and narrative".

[21] Rolling Stone critic Alan Light declared the album "a disappointment" and said that "the relentless profanity grows wearisome, the Bomb Squad beats lose steam, and Cube's attitudes toward women are simply despicable.

"[35] Pitchfork's Eric Harvey called it a "groundbreaking" record that ushered hip hop into "the tabloid decade", concluding that "it was AmeriKKKa as much as Nation of Millions and Straight Outta Compton that laid the groundwork for hip-hop's brief and dramatic evolution into an expansive truth-telling media spectacle.