Patrick Lyons of HotNewHipHop rated the mixtape an 86% saying "This is one of the most powerful tapes of the year, with tracks that grab you by the collar and shake you into submission with their soul-baring honesty.

Now with a new label to call home, Herbo comes with an enlightened sense of perspective, Herb’s Ballin Like I’m Kobe paints something pretty close to an audible masterpiece.

But outside of "I'm Rollin", Herbo's doesn't traffic in the kind of pioneering stylistic breakthroughs common to the first wave of drill artists—King Louie, Lil Durk, or Chief Keef.

His vocal style is ragged but forceful, and in contrast with the East Coast influences to which it might be readily compared—the LOX, say—there's a sense of Herbo's words scratching past the lines, moving with a looser, less precise rhythm, as if to suggest an anxious undercurrent.

And likewise, his subject matter seldom moves toward the humor of classic New York mixtape artists, preferring to shift from the autobiographical to very real-seeming threats.

[11] Vibe Magazine noted that "BLIK serves as his most focused and poignant work to date, showing a more reflective and introspective Herbo in bars than heard before.