The song was written by Goldie with Rob Playford, and is widely considered one of the most iconic drum and bass works of its era.

The song fuses the breakbeats and basslines common in jungle with orchestral textures and soul vocals by Diane Charlemagne.

It has been described as a ghetto-blues ballad, 'a yearning reverie of sanctuary from "inner-city pressure"'[6] and features a sample from Ike Turner's song "Funky Mule", from his 1969 album, A Black Man's Soul.

"[12] Simon Reynolds from Melody Maker felt the "gorgeous jazzy vocals and Goldie's angelic/demonic strings could well make "Inner City Life" the "Unfinished Sympathy" of jungle".

[13] Another Melody Maker editor, Sarra Manning, praised the "caramel cream vocals" of Diane Charlemagne, "melting out urban angst platitudes over some more bass-heavy, bubbling fat noises.

"[14] Dom Phillips from Music & Media noted its "vocal future jungle delights",[15] while Maria Jimenez remarked the "soulful breakbeat", complimenting it as a high quality track of its dance sub-genre.

Diane Charlemagne's superb vocal soars over the plunging bass, galloping beats and almost ambient synth sweeps.

The spectral strings move disturbingly in and out of focus, the low frequencies seem to open up underneath you, and the eerie mutations of Diane Charlemagne's vocals float in the ether, utterly lost in space.

As the track unfolds through Diane Charlemagne's spellbinding vocal hex and the splintered breakbeats you get flash-frames from a parallel landscape — fragments of soul, jungle, iced-out ambience — all encased in a holographic production that looms up like a physical presence.

"[22] Another RM editor, James Hamilton, noted that Charlemagne "calmly wails in jazz samba style through swirling shrill strings and explosively skittering 0-155-0bpm jungle beats, weird and atmospheric".

[23] Charles Aaron from Spin commented, "Like Marvin Gaye ruminating while rushing, he fades a breathtaking vocal by Diane Charlemagne (plus muted trumpet) in and out of ethereal beats.

Fraught with dub's tensely apocalyptic vision and techno's hopeful twitch, this is finally the sound of an urban pulse that acknowledges both black and white expressions and tensions, and the feeling of coming up, going down, and needing to keep dancing forever.

"[24] Shane Danielsen from The Sydney Morning Herald noted the "swirling strings" of the track, "underpinned by complex poly-rhythms and booming subsonics.

[27] Upon the re-release of the song in November 1995, Mark Sutherland from NME wrote, "The smooth urban soul of 'Inner City Life' is, of course, his finest moment.

They noted, "Chock full of soul, precision breakbeat edits, and strings, "Inner City Life" helped let the mainstream know that drum & bass was more than the chin-stroking dark sounds in the corner, and was more than capable of making tracks that could move you emotionally.