[4] It was her second album release on Big Dada Recordings.

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Freedom of Speech received an average score of 62% based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[1] The album prompted Trebuchet Magazine to describe Debelle as 'a fiery, if naïve, seeker of justice and truth', and said "she has a cracked lusciousness to her voice that strongly recalls Martina Topley-Bird's most meltingly sexy moments on Tricky's Maxinquaye.

"[5] MTV gave the album 5/5 stars, and said, "What makes this a truly great hip hop album is that her words, piling up on one another, take on the quality of incantations — and that those incantations take on a life of their own.

"[6] According to AllMusic in a review, "Speech Debelle is now the most interesting and possibly the most exciting British MC on the scene.