A Gift & a Curse received generally positive reviews. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an
average score of 68, based on six reviews. Robin Murray of
Clash wrote that the album was "succinct, finessed, and packs a punch". Writing for
Mic Cheque, Hamza Riaz opined that it "shows that Gunna is
YSL's most valuable asset, constantly honing his sound and this time adding a new layer to his predictable output". In a mixed review, Alphonse Pierre of
Pitchfork felt like the album was "too vague to have much depth and too absorbed in real-life drama to have the feel-good vibes he wants to preserve". Writing for
Slant Magazine, Paul Attard felt that "Gunna gives us more of himself than he ever has before, and even if much of the lyrical substance of the album is undermined in a few weeks' time, that in and of itself is worth celebrating". ==Commercial performance==