Production was handled by Symbolyc One, 6th Sense, 88-Keys, E. Jones, Khrysis, Marco Polo, Maurice Brown, M-Phazes, Nick Speed, Oh No, Shuko and Ski Beatz, with Caleb McCampbell serving as co-producer.

[9] Mosi Reeves of Spin found "the production (from Ski Beatz, 88-Keys, others) adds florid, melodramatic choruses to jazzy boom-bap tracks, blunting the impact of Kweli's dogged street intellectualism".

[11] In mixed reviews, Slava "Roman Cooper" Kuperstein of HipHopDX stated: "Gutter Rainbows is a fairly easy spin, and can go into the listener's steady rotation in a pinch.

[13] Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone concluded: "Gutter Rainbows is unabashed conscious-rap classicism, with a luscious, string-swamped soul sound and rhymes that tout the MC's left-of-center cred".

Kweli spends a good chunk of the album acting like a drunk, unemployed superhero, stumbling into supermarkets to aid old ladies whose purses are fully in their possession".