[4] The production was noted for its roots "in the airiest of hip-hop/R&B summer crossover,"[1] for including tropical elements[5] and was compared to the work of Boyz II Men and Justin Timberlake.
"[5] Fuse described "Bad Boy" as a "unique mid-tempo track" that is "richly urban, set against a nostalgic '90s hip hop beat.
"[6] In 2016, Filipino Rapper Skusta Clee released an exact plagiarised version of the song under the title "Wag Ka Nang Magalit".
"[7] Billboard placed the track at number five in their "Best K-Pop songs of the Year" list,[8] and claimed that "Bad Boy" stands out for "being the epitome of Big Bang's unique brand of evocative hip-hop" and added "the song is a creeping earworm that hits all the right notes without much apparent effort and was an early adopter of the tropical elements so common in Korean hip-hop nowadays.
[19] The music video for "Bad Boy" was filmed in a 90s throwback style, using 360-degree rotation-capable MK-V AR Steadicam's Arri Alexa cameras.
[20] Duncan Cooper from The Fader called the video "compelling and refreshingly unforced", writing that the group is "on the ground and they're walking the turf, and for four breezy minutes they're absolutely killing it.