Composed of rapper Talib Kweli and DJ/hip hop producer Hi-Tek, it is the duo's follow-up to their collaborative debut Train of Thought (2000).

The album features five singles: "Back Again", "Just Begun" with Mos Def, Jay Electronica and J. Cole, "In This World", "Strangers (Paranoid)" with Bun B, and "Midnight Hour" with Estelle.

[18] Giving it an 8/10 rating, PopMatters writer Dave Heaton praised Kweli's lyrics concerning the importance of money in life, building a career in hip hop, the differences between celebrity and work, and the former's effect on a person, stating: Taken as a whole, Revolutions Per Minute offers a specific and complicated vision of what it means to be an artist.

Club's Nathan Rabin gave the album a B rating and wrote "Hi-Tek lacks a trademark style, but his chemistry with Kweli remains potent, even when Minute doesn't hit the heights of the duo's debut".

[8] Mosi Reeves of Spin gave the album 3½ out of 5 stars and viewed Hi-Tek's "jazz-inflected riffs and soulful vibes" as complementary to Kweli's "mercurial" style, stating "congenial beats balance intricately daring rhymes".

[19] Pitchfork Media's Nate Patrin gave Revolutions per Minute a 7.5/10 rating and commended its "conscious yet unpretentious lyricism delivered with acrobatic dexterity over on-point, no-gimmick beats".