[4] According to The Boombox, Aaliyah gets intimate about her "inner-yearning for the apple of her eye and decides to get her feelings off of her chest by penning a detailed letter, which we get a glimpse of in audio form".

Elliott tweeted: "When I was in the booth singing this my engineer had the music too low so I was telling him to turn it up but Aaliyah thought I meant to do it so she sung it like i did on the demo but it was a mistake … because [Aaliyah] loved the mistake I told Jimmy the engineer to keep raising the music on the track everytime she say turn it up so it would make sense to the listeners so y'all wouldn't think we was crazy".

[7] Fairclough analyzed the intro saying, "'4 Page Letter' opens with spoken words: an insistent, repeated instruction from Aaliyah' as if emceeing at a spontaneous warehouse party, and that the mixer duly obeys:"Yo – turn my music up... Up some more... Up – some more...Up a little bit more'.

And the final payoff you encounter, that languid synth line at nearly five minutes in, is so sticky and fine, you can't help but hit replay to find it again".

[9] Kenneth Partridge from Billboard felt that Aaliyah displayed a "stunning" example of maturity beyond her years on "4 Page Letter", and that she treated Timbaland's "tissuey beat like fine stationery".

[14] In an August 2021 retrospective review, Billboard praised both Aaliyah's vocal delivery and the songs production, while declaring "the result is an arresting track that is equal parts cautious and confident".

[1] Writers from Variety praised both Aaliyah's voice and the songs production saying, her "gospel-influenced intonations on the chorus paired with Timbaland's maraca sounds create a feeling of longing and infatuation, taking us back to the days of passing notes to high school sweethearts.

[6] Entertainment Weekly writer Brandon Caldwell said, on the song "Aaliyah's optimistic pleas regarding newfound love feel both approachable and disarming".

[26] While discussing the video's location in an interview, Pearl said: "I had a great production designer and we basically went into an existing forest and we dressed it with some of the vintage and some of the things to make it more interesting than it was, it took a couple of days".

[28] The video takes place in a forest and shows Aaliyah secretly watching a man she likes dancing in a clearing near a rustic village.

[29] Jordan Simon from Idolator felt that the video for "4 Page Letter" displayed a striking resemblance to the film Lord of the Flies and the television series Lost.

[28] The music video for "4 Page Letter" made its television debut on the week ending April 20, 1997 on cable network channels such as BET and MTV.

[34] Steffanee Wang from Nylon stated, "Aaliyah embraces nature in this bizarre video that involves her capturing a man in the wild and keeping him in a cage before dancing with him before a raging fire fit for a sacrificial ceremony.

"[35] In the book Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop (2023), author Kirsty Fairclough felt the video is "overloaded with storylines to the point of incomprehensibility".

[37] Cheo Hodari Coke from the Los Angeles Times praised Aaliyah's performance saying that she had "tight choreography, heartfelt vocals and enough platinum hits to delight the crowd.

"[37] The Daily Bruin gave a more mixed review explaining that, "Aaliyah’s vocals were right on the line with "4 Page Letter" and the rattling "One In A Million," but she might as well have sung from backstage with the uninspiring stage presence she quickly revealed.