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Dave Simpson from The Guardian was more critical, dismissing the music as 'an aural equivalent of that old American favourite, the schmaltzy biopic.' In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau gave the record a back-handed compliment: ' raps like a legend in his own time-namely, Elvis in Vegas'. In Rolling Stone, Touré argued that The Black Album was slightly inferior to Jay-Z's best records, namely Reasonable Doubt (1996) and The Blueprint (2001). Jon Caramanica wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) that The Black Album was both 'old-school and utterly modern', showcasing Jay-Z 'at the top of his game, able to reinvent himself as a rap classicist at the right time, as if to cement his place in hip-hop's legacy for generations to come'.

Club, Nathan Rabin felt Jay-Z returned to 'brevity and consistency' on an album that demonstrated his lyrical abilities and, more importantly, hip hop's best producers.

Vibe magazine said it was remarkable as an apotheosis of his genuinely thoughtful songwriting and lyrics 'delivered with transcendent skill', while Steve Jones from USA Today said even with 'top-shelf work' from elite producers, the album was elevated by Jay-Z's uniquely deft and diverse rapping style. AllMusic's John Bush claimed Jay-Z was retiring at his peak with the album. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, it received an average score of 84, based on 19 reviews. The Black Album was met with widespread critical acclaim.