On the day of its release
Pitchfork named it Best New Track, noting that, " 'Humble' is a hard-nosed G check of his lessers, that pivots into imperfect critiques of beauty standards".
NPR's Andrew Flanagan thought, "the song, less exploration of contrition on the part of Lamar than an instruction to his peers, picks up a thread NPR Music first examined following that album teaser: how the 'best rapper alive' might explore the theme of God, religion and personal growth." For Alex Young of
Consequence of Sound, "it's got all the ingredients of a proper lead single: a
Mike WiLL Made It-produced beat built on piano and 808 bass, a chorus you can spit along to ('Sit down/ Be humble'), and shoutouts to Grey Poupon and the
former president." Writing for
The Guardian, Harriet Gibson explained how the song is, "sparse and rigid, beginning with the crunching swipes of an electric guitar, and is led by beats and sinister stabs of piano. It is a showcase for his authoritative lyricism and preacher-like message, while the instrumentation is far from the complex jazz and funk sounds of
To Pimp a Butterfly ... In fact, 'Humble' has more in common with
grime's
minimalism than it does the vintage stylings of his recent output."
Rolling Stone considered it the third-best, and
Billboard the sixth. and in 2021,
Rolling Stone ranked the song number eight on their list of the 50 greatest Kendrick Lamar songs. ==Chart performance==