Trouser Press dubbed Ego Trip one of Blow's "state-of-the-art in an almost mainstream vein" early albums, noting that the inclusion of Run-D.M.C. was a "concerted effort to get hipper."[8]The Washington Post wrote that Blow "knows how to mix plain talk with his rhymes, so that his records carry an extra bit of street feel, but his most impressive moments come when he exploits the studio, as he does on the intoxicatingly sinuous 'AJ Scratch'."[9]The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that "the hit single 'Eight Million Stories' suggests that other people are worthier subjects of his songwriting than Kurtis Blow."[4]
In a tribute to "Basketball" and its legacy, Slam wrote that "none of the NBA/hip-hop empire building happens—or at the very least none of it happens the way we remember it happening—without the skills of Kurtis Blow."[10]
