Lyte as a Rock

Rob Theakston of AllMusic reviews "(...) Lyte as a Rock has aged better than most records that came out during hip-hop's formative years, although at certain moments it has become dated since its release. But what has aged is more than compensated by the classic tunes and the disc's potent historical impact on a generation of women MCs. A classic."[18]

PopMatters' Mark Anthony Neal called the album "one of the most underrated debuts in hip-hop history".[8]

In December 2016 Gino Sorcinelli from Medium would comment:

Only 17 and still unable to vote when Lyte as a Rock dropped, she demonstrated a keen storytelling ability on her first album that many older rappers couldn’t rival. The perfect combination of fierce lyricism and gritty, hard-hitting beats, Lyte as a Rock is a brief, powerful listen loaded with classics like “Lyte as a Rock”, “Paper Thin”, and “10% Dis”. Even though all of these songs sound great 28 years later, “I Cram to Understand U (Sam)” may still be the best song on the album.[9]

In 1998, "Lyte as a Rock" would be listed in The Source's 100 Greatest Albums of All Time list.[5]

In 1999, Ego Trip's editors ranked the album No. 13 in their list Hip Hop's 40 Greatest Album by Year 1988 in Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists.[19]

In February 2008, Rolling Stone included "Lyte as a Rock" along with other albums such as N.W.A's debut album Straight Outta Compton and Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back on their list of the best albums of 1988, which considered "Rap's greatest year".[1]

In August 2013 was included No. 3 on NME's "25 Albums That Changed Hip-Hop Forever" list.[2]

In October 2017 the album was ranked No. 30 on Complex magazine's "Best Rap Albums of the 80s" list, which Michael Gonzales commented "MC Lyte emerged from the depths of Brooklyn caring more about her rhyme skills than her make-up.(...) Homegirl might've been Lyte as a Rock, but her debut album was heavy as a boulder."[3]

In September 2018 Pitchfork included "Lyte as a Rock" in their list "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s".

Groundbreaking and unconfined, the album has a take-on-all-comers bravado buoyed by Lyte’s aerodynamic style. She is unflappable—as cool as Big Daddy Kane, as cerebral as Kool Moe Dee, harder than Salt-N-Pepa but just as cheeky. (...)That monumental chip on her shoulder was a byproduct of all the naysayers claiming women couldn’t rap, and it drove her to outdo everyone: "If a rap can paint a thousand words, then I can paint a million," she proclaims proudly on the title track. This is a record about being a woman in a boys’ club and blowing up the spot with uncompromising attitude. She wasn’t in it to pander to the male gaze, or to play affirmative action girl. She was in it to win. – Sheldon Pearce[4]