Edwin Ortiz of HipHopDX gave the album three and a half stars out of five, saying "Black Gold revels in its ability to highlight the unique approach of Strange Music while still sounding refreshingly conventional. At 35 years young, Kutt Calhoun is picking up traction when other rappers would be given the checkered flag. Underappreciated or not, that’s something that won’t go unnoticed."[5] David Jeffries of AllMusic gave the album three and a half stars out of five, saying "Crafting a thug party anthem out of a Willy Wonka line ("I Don't Like the Look of It") and using the '70s sitcom Three's Company as inspiration for a strip club jam ("Jack Tripper") rapper Kutt Calhoun is still the Strange Music label's strongest link to the streets, but here, he's certainly upped the funny. Maybe it's hanging around label boss Tech N9ne, who guest stars on the great "I Been Dope" ("I been dope since Reaganomics/Son of a crack fiend, holla at me"), but most of the exciting moments on Black Gold are when Kutt goes weird and/or wild, or maybe even novelty."[4]
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart and at number 120 on the Billboard 200,[6] with first-week sales of 4,300 copies in the United States.[7]