It was written by the duo alongside Kenneth Gamble and Bunny Sigler, who are credited due to the song containing excerpts from their composition "Love, Need and Want You", performed by Patti LaBelle.

As the song incorporates a sample from Patti LaBelle's 1983 recording "Love, Need and Want You", its writers Kenneth Gamble and Bunny Sigler received a songwriting credit on "GhettoMusick".

[11][12] Writing for MTV News, Shaheem Reid described "GhettoMusick" as an "intense, fluently moving track sound[ing] like the lovechild of Miami bass, bounce and electronic".

[8][14] While Big Boi's rap was labeled "machine-gun-speed" by Will Hermes from Entertainment Weekly,[7] Nick Southall from Stylus Magazine described André 3000's vocal performance as "helium-soaked".

Matt Dentler from The Austin Chronicle called it "a lock down on the sad state of affairs that hip-hop's most flammable duo has found the rap game in since returning from their three-year hiatus".

[18] Daily Bruin and Uncut singled the song out as the album's standout track; the former attributed their choice to the "sound of urgency found not only in the socialization of ghetto politics and identity, but also in the pure strength of the beat".

[4][6] The Independent compared its "tricksy rhythms, treated R&B vocals, oddball sleazy humour and bizarre stylistic shifts" to the artistry of American rock band The Mothers of Invention.

[17] In Rolling Stone, Jon Caramanica wrote the track "resembles the fight song of an Afro-psychedelic superhero" and placed it among the instrumental highlights of Big Boi's Speakerboxxx, which he credited to André 3000's production.

[14] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic complimented its position as the opening track of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, writing: "From the moment Speakerboxxx kicks into gear with "GhettoMusick" and its relentless blend of old-school 808s and breakneck breakbeats, it's clear that Boi is ignoring boundaries, and the rest of his album follows suit.

[22] In Dazed, Gabriel Szatan described it as an "armour-plated riot vehicle", adding that it contributed to the album acting as "a Rosetta Stone for the preceding half-century of contemporary music".

[23] Alexis Petridis included "GhettoMusick" in his ranking of Outkast's best songs for The Guardian, calling it a "vertiginous" highlight of its parent album and commending its "ferocious, distorted synths, frantic beats and soul interludes".