In a contemporary interview and review,
Sounds described both the album and single for
Fat Boys as "well naff. It's this sort of pointless juvenile gimmickry which is rapidly turning the hip-hop culture into a trembling jelly of silliness with its desperate appeals to the lowest criteria."
Robert Christgau said, "These prize porkers parody insatiability--long after the break of dawn (long after you're limp, Dick), they'll still be stuffing it. They won't ever be great rappers technically, though Prince Markie Dee has the poise and clarity to get close and the bass-kazoo hums and belchlike aspirations of the Human Beat Box show rhythmic instinct and sonic imagination. But their shambling, cheerful fat-boy dance is a party for kids of all ages. I love the hooks on 'Fat Boys' and the barks on 'Don't You Dog Me', and if 'Jail House Rap" is no 'Message' or 'Hustler's Convention', neither is it a trivialization—at least as silly and serious as Lee Dorsey in the coal mine or Sam Cooke on the chain gang." In a retrospective review
AllMusic stated, "Because of their comic image, some hip-hoppers dismissed the Fat Boys as a novelty act -- some, but not many." and noted that The Fat Boys were "among the best and most popular rappers of the mid-1980s. Along with
Run-D.M.C.,
L.L. Cool J, and
Whodini, the Fat Boys were the finest that hip-hop's "Second Generation" (as it was called) had to offer." The review declared it to be an "excellent debut album" which was "humorous, wildly entertaining, and unapologetically funky" and that the album was "a true hip-hop classic." ==Track listing==