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Truthfully Speaking earned generally mixed reviews from music critics. BBC Music critic Emmy Perry called the album a "quality debut performance with solid production and Truth's considerable talents as a songwriter making up for the fact that few tracks match up to the originality of the first single. There is however no questioning the calibre and tone of her operatic voice, which appears to convey the harsh sound of the streets whilst keeping the church firmly in mind." Sal Cinquemani, writing for Slant Magazine, called Truthfully Speaking a "slow burner that draws on more traditional hip-hop and R&B sound structures and displays Truth’s versatile, often coquettish, vocal (think a less socially-conscious Jill Scott)."
PopMatters described Truthfully Speaking as a "a simple album filled with plenty of vocal potential but misses the mark with its overall simplicity." AllMusic editor John Bush found that despite a "star-studded credit list, Truthfully Speaking is a bland record; Truth Hurts' vocals, while evocative and rangy, aren't incredibly strong (especially when she's stretching a note), and she usually needs a backup chorus to keep the songs sounding good A few of the productions make for good tracks, though most of the time Truth Hurts struggles to keep up with the best in the contemporary R&B field."
Commercial performance
The album debuted at five on the US Billboard 200, selling 89,000 copies. By October 2003, Truthfully Speaking had sold 338,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
