The album is broken down track-by-track by the group in Brian Coleman's book Check the Technique.

[2] The Washington Post opined that the album "does have an intriguing edge to it, but its beats are rigid and its raps—especially 'Jane', EPMD's entry in the genre's tiresome 'Boy, am I a stud!'

[19] Years after its release, Strictly Business has continued to attract critical success.

[22] In 2001, Dance de Lux ranked Strictly Business as the 11th-best hip hop record of all time.

Strictly Business is now widely considered to be a classic release[25] and a seminal hip hop album.

The Mario Winans, Enya, and P. Diddy song "I Don't Wanna Know" (2004) and its Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, and 21 Savage remake "Creepin'" (2022) both heavily incorporate the drum outro of the album track "You're a Customer" from Strictly Business.

Another Diddy/Winans collaboration, "Through the Pain (She Told Me)" (2007), while not sampling it directly, features a similar drum beat to the "You're a Customer" outro.