"King" isn’t complacent enough to act like all the wars are fought and all the gods are dead; T.I. sees his legacy and city very much up for grabs. A city, a scene and his legacy are unfinished, and while "King" won’t be T.I.’s last, or, hopefully, best section of his mosaic, it’s the perfection of his aesthetic thus far." "The New York Times" said the album had "Memorable refrains, hard beats, elegant rhymes: this album succeeds mainly by sticking to a simple but effective formula." "Entertainment Weekly" stated "Though long at 18 tracks, "King" still [has] plenty of heavyweight hits." "The Village Voice"s Makkada B. Selah opined that "Anyone disputing T.I.'s claim to the title 'King of the South' has been summarily silenced by the pageant King's release. The self-proclaimed Dick Cheney of rap showcases many styles, each track here is a multi-layered, highly nuanced production." Sputnikmusic's Joe Schmoh noted "T.I. has always been a prime example of an excellent mainstream rapper from the south. He exudes confidence with every single breath he breaths over the microphone, swinging comfortably from snare hit to snare hit like Tarzan of the beats. However, whether it's Ludacris, Rick Ross, or T.I., the problems are all the same. T.I. has no idea at all how to balance an album together. At least he didn’t until he went towards recording King, an album whose title obviously aims towards magnum opus, a record that balances T.I.’s softer side done right with effortless gruff confidence placed on balling records. Basically, King shows T.I. ripping to his full potential. With women, he’s evolved into this sort of country gentlemen, and he shows this over swelling, swollen synthesizers that make his softer side truly something to behold. And yet, it seems like what the real shine still are the bangers. Even the weak tracks sound strong due to T.I.’s superfluous confidence. Normally, records like this just sound like wastes of good beats, but T.I. serves these beats with pure swag and rhythmic ability. He doesn’t even need to rhyme about anything important or relevant, he’s got enough fun punchlines and self-confidence to cover that up. T.I. manages to spend the entire record outshining every single guest, making every beat his own, and even being respectful to the ladies as opposed to misogynistic.