"Ghetto Baby" was performed on Cole's debut headlining solo concert tour, named A Million Lights Tour, in October 2012.
Elena Gorgan of Softpedia considered "Ghetto Baby" a solid song, despite being "less dance-inspired" than the other tracks on the album, "which could mean it never sees the light of day as a single."
"Ghetto Baby", produced by Kid Gloves, is a hip hop track.
the song's lyrics were considered by Laurence Green of musicOMH "classic Lana Del Rey"; a beat-heavy number "woven from kisses, stilettos and sultry speak-singing," with lines such as "When he's bad he's bad / But when he's good no one's better / Cos we're a match made in heaven / And this kind of love's forever."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic deemed it as one of the album's highlights, but stated that, on many tracks from A Million Lights such as "Ghetto Baby" and "Under the Sun", "Cheryl doesn't stamp these sounds with her own personality; she merely tries the personas on for size, not so much to see if they fit, but rather to see which ones will allow her entry into the charts."