At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Black Dialogue received an average score of 81, based on 7 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[1]
Andy Kellman of AllMusic gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, saying, "Lif and Akrobatik have a long history, so they sound natural as brainy verse-swapping partners, and they're sharp throughout, whether they have their sights set on the Bush Administration or are simply batting boasts back and forth."[2] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club said, "on the whole, Black Dialogue emerges as a triumph, an impassioned 12-track hip-hop manifesto even a mother could love, assuming of course, she hasn't affixed a Bush/Cheney sticker on the bumper of the family station wagon."[3]
Dylan Hicks of City Pages called it "a leftist party record: alarmed but not paranoid, disgusted but not defeated, convinced that radicals are born on the dance floor and thus never guilty about composing love raps and having a good time."[5] Derek Beres of XLR8R said: "Social theory and musical aesthetic find kindred partnership on Black Dialogue."[9]
Rolling Stone placed it at number 36 on the "Top 50 Records of 2005" list.[10]
