"[2][3] For Beats, Rhymes and Life, The Ummah created a minimalist sound reminiscent of The Low End Theory, which Ali Shaheed Muhammad described as "nothing extravagant, nothing far out.

[9] Beats, Rhymes and Life debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on October 27, 1998, with shipments of one million copies in the United States, becoming the group's most commercially successful album.

Ernest Hardy of Rolling Stone called it "near-flawless", while commending The Ummah for their "irresistible" production, and the group for "spinning universal themes from an Afrocentric loom, with positivity balanced against subtly subversive street reporting.

"[14] Robert Christgau gave the album a three-star honorable mention in his consumer guide for The Village Voice,[17] noting that the group fights "sensationalist obscurity with philosophic subtlety", which he believed was ineffective.

[18] In the 5th edition of his Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Colin Larkin praised the group's "highly evolved" lyrics and lauded them for "addressing issues with greater philosophy than the crude banter of their past recordings.