[4] The album's production is characterized by witty scratching and funk beats,[5] including samples of music by Parliament-Funkadelic, Zapp, and Roy Ayers.

Music journalist Jon Pareles writes that "they want to shift the cultural credit back to Africa, instilling pride in a younger black generation and revising the historical record (itself a matter of heated debate)".

[8] In a contemporary review for DownBeat, Bill Milkowski wrote that X Clan "offer food for thought with a backbeat ... Their mission is to educate, using hip-hop as the medium.

"[8] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice facetiously cited its "hallmarks" as "obscure Egyptological insults and flowing funk beats."

He viewed it as a product of the rise in "message rap" at the time and stated, "prophets and demagogues of every description join the myriad of hip hop wannabees, enabling lugs like these avowedly non-'humanist' Brooklynites to make their subcultural dent.