Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors received generally positive reviews from
music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an
average score of 72, based on 32 reviews. Simon Vozick-Levinson of
Rolling Stone commended Big Boi for bringing his disparate collaborators "together in harmony" and found "even more" impressive "the ease with which Big Boi insinuates his smack-talking, game-kicking self into their midst". Will Butler of
The A.V. Club asserted that the album "delivers" as a "feel-good record", with Big Boi "at his most selfless, honest, and exploratory now".
Jon Pareles of
The New York Times felt that, "even in Outkast, Big Boi was never merely a macho cartoon; now, he's revealing he's a grown-up."
Slant Magazines Ted Scheinman commented that the album's "reflexive eclecticism ... coheres on the strength" of Big Boi's rapping and felt that, "in the best sense, it's the conspicuous work of a magnanimous music lover". Dan Cairns of
The Sunday Times called it a "multi-genre riot" and commented that it "demolishes the perception" of Big Boi as the uneccentric foil to
André 3000. John Calvert of
Fact called it "glossy, overwhelmingly kinetic and neon-colourful ... arguably the pop hip-hop production job of the year," and wrote that each of its "innumerable hooks" are "textured, accentuated and arranged in just such a way that they jump out at the listener like musical holograms." In a mixed review,
AllMusic's Andy Kellman was ambivalent towards Big Boi's collaborations and "inharmonious experiments", writing that he "adapts to the unfamiliar surroundings with little effort and often sounds comfortable, but the fusions are short on power." Rebecca Nicholson of
The Guardian called it "a good album in need of a brutal trim" and felt that "its over-reliance on guests blunts the clear ambition". David Amidon of
PopMatters found it to be an "awkward" listen similar to
Common's 2002 album
Electric Circus, but emphasized "how
fun most of this music is even as it feels weird to hear Big Boi hopping on top of [it]." Miles Raymer of
Pitchfork critiqued that the album is "on the one hand a genre-busting statement of artistic restlessness" but also "a mess", and found Big Boi's "dextrous, technically capable" rapping to be its "saving grace". indicating "a worthy effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well like." He cited "Apple of My Eye" and "She Hates Me" as highlights and quipped that Big Boi "claims hip-hop, represents r&b, ends up neither here nor there". ==Commercial performance==