[1] With a production oriented to the New Jack Swing sound, in the song Lyte talks about her preference for men, metaphorically comparing them to ice cream cone.

[4] With a production oriented to the New Jack Swing sound, in the song Lyte talks about her preference for men, metaphorically comparing them to ice cream cone "Dark, handsome, six feet tall/Thirty-one flavors, I believe he’s got ‘em all."

Ice Cream Dream has more sexual lyrical content than their previously released singles "Forget the chase--I'm prepared to get a taste/Licky here, licky there cuz I like it/Too much to eat--so I guess I'll bite it.

The single features a Jermaine Dupri remix which in turn contains samples of multiple elements from the previous song "Lyte as a Rock", T La Rock and Jazzy Jay's "It's Yours" and Uncle Louie's "Like Funky Music", plus vocals of "Pee-Wee's Dance" by Joeski Love, "Put Your Love (In My Tender Care)" by Fatback Band and "The Breakdown (Part I)" by Rufus Thomas.

In his book Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism (1993), academic and author Michael Eric Dyson described the song as "a delicious ode to erotic desire" in which Lyte "seductively embellishes a conceit drawn from quotidian experience".

[7] In 2013 Cedric Muhammad would analyze the trajectory of Jam & Lewis for Forbes magazine, in which he would describe the song as "risque" and ask "how perfect is Lisa Keith’s voice in chorus?

"[6] In 2017, in a retrospective review of the soundtrack album, Todd Stereo Williams of The Boombox considered Lyte's song "One of her most underrated cuts", highlighting as in its artistic maturation "she wasn't afraid to embrace R&B" even though made her first appearance as a battle rapper in the 80s.