[1] The song seeks to convey an anti-addiction message, through the story of George and the dysfunctional relationship MC Lyte has with this individual with self-destructive behaviors.

During an interview with Vibe in 2011 Lyte stated on the composition of the song: “‘Poor Georgie’ was straight up storytelling.

This is what you stand to face if you do harmful things to your body.”[8]During another interview in 2013 she says: “So there are times with songs like “Poor Georgie” that when I heard it, it made me feel like oh my god this is a story about a man who has some deep problems and deep issues(...) To a large degree I knew I needed to talk about drugs and the effect it had on people.

[10] The music video for "Poor Georgie" was released in September 1991 and features an appearance by 16-year-old Lauryn Hill.

[11] The song contains multi-element samples from Toto's "Georgy Porgy", vocals from The Supremes' "My World Is Empty Without You", Michael Jackson's "I Wanna Be Where You Are", Jimmy Spicer's "The Bubble Bunch" hook.

[16] Gil Griffin of The Washington Post highlighted the song in the album review, commenting that it "brilliantly incorporates an old Toto sample.

3 on VH1's list "The 25 Dopest Female Rap Tracks Of The Last 25 Years", noting that "Lyte’s cautionary tale of drunk driving once again proved that you could make folks dance and think at the same damn time.

"[19] In a conversation about her influences, Grammy-nominated rapper Rapsody mentioned Poor Georgie as "the first song that made me wanna be a part of it.