Co-written with Rosie Gaines, the lyrics deal directly with money, poverty, and greed, and overall, the song is a smooth delivery with layered vocals by Prince.

"[3] David Browne from Entertainment Weekly called it "one startling moment" from the album, that "is sung in a soulful growl that sounds utterly unaffected".

"[5] Pan-European magazine Music & Media found that after a ballad, "Diamonds and Pearls", "his royal badness speeds up the tempo just a little bit, for a nicely floating and immediately catchy number.

[8] In a 2016 retrospective review, Patrick Corcoran from Albumism said, "As lyrically scathing as anything he'd written to that point, it included the scarily prescient line "anything's better than a picture of a child in a cloud of gas"."

"[9] Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic noted the "extraordinary Philly soul" of "the neglected masterpiece", viewing it as a "terrific" pop single.

[12] Another The Guardian editor, Alexis Petridis, said it is "a fantastic song, the smoothness of its sound and delivery masking a punchy, politically engaged lyric that takes in both consumerism and Operation Desert Storm.