How Many Licks? VH1 wrote that the single and other tracks from "The Notorious K.I.M." have a "glossier and far more commercial" sound than the rapper's previous releases. The lyrics of "How Many Licks?" are part of a movement in 1990s hip hop music to express sexuality positively. Sexuality studies professor Thomas A. Foster wrote that Lil' Kim reverses a trend in hip hop music which objectifies women for the male gaze and celebrates male sexuality. Gender studies scholar Aine McGlynn described "How Many Licks?" as one of the most sexually-explicit songs to receive airplay. The lyrics describe a woman's interest in oral
How Many Licks? on her blonde hair and blue eyes. They wrote that Lil' Kim would be remembered by "her participation in codes of pornographic descriptions of women" rather than her commentary on sexuality. Selected scholars compared the video to those released by other rappers. In his essay "Supa Dupa Fly: Black Women as Cyborgs in Hiphop Videos", cultural critic Steven Shaviro wrote that the videos for "How Many Licks?" and American rapper Missy Elliott's 1997 single "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" contain “stories of black female empowerment, in the face of deeply engrained racism and sexism". Feminist scholars M. L. Williams and