[15] Robert Christgau gave the album muted praise in The Village Voice, calling it "over two hours of what sometimes sounds like bullshit: it's not exactly music to fill the mind.

"[14] In the 1981 edition of Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies, he praised the side-long pieces "He Loved Him Madly" ("a tribute to Duke Ellington as elegant African internationalist") and "Calypso Frelimo" ("a Caribbean dance broken into sections that seem to follow with preordained emotional logic") while offering a mixed assessment of the other material.

[9] For the album's 2000 reissue, Alternative Press published a review calling it "essential ... the overlooked classic of psychedelic soul and outlandish improv ... representing the high water mark of [Davis'] experiments in the fusion of rock, funk, electronica and jazz".

"[16] In a highly positive retrospective review, Andy Beta of Pitchfork described Get Up with It as a "black funk dreamscape", observing that it "careens between extremes, as Miles presages everything still to come: ambient, no wave, world beat, jungle, new jack swing, post-rock, even hinting at the future sound of R&B and chart-topping pop".

[17] British composer Brian Eno cited "He Loved Him Madly" as an influence on his work in the liner notes to his 1982 album Ambient 4: On Land.