Midnight Marauders was generally well received by music critics, with Vibe hailing it as "a rap classic" and NME calling it the group's "most complete work to date." In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau quipped that it was "intelligent easy-listening rap", choosing the track "Steve Biko (Stir It Up)" as a highlight; he later commended the album, rating it higher than The Low End Theory. In Oliver Wang's book Classic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide, writer Joseph Patel noted how the album helped unify hip-hop in the early 1990s:
Writing in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Mac Randall wrote that it "certainly doesn't skimp on the funk." It was ranked number 75 on Pitchforks list of the Top 100 Favorite Records of the 1990s, with Rollie Pemberton stating that the group "produced a jazz-hop clinic that finds itself equal parts Pete Rock, Buckshot and Diamond D."
| 2008
| style="text-align:center;"|26
|-
|About.com
|U.S.
|10 Essential Hip-Hop Albums
| 2008
| style="text-align:center;"|7
|-
|About.com
|U.S.
|Best Rap Albums of 1993
| 2008
| style="text-align:center;"|2
|-
| Ego Trip
| U.S.
| Hip Hop's 25 Greatest Albums by Year 1980–1998
| 1999
|align="center"| 2
|-
| Exclaim!
| Canada
| 100 Records That Rocked 100 Issues
| 2016
|align="center"| *
|-
| Gary Mulholland
| UK
| 261 Greatest Albums Since Punk and Disco
| 2007
|align="center"| *
|-
| The Guardian
| UK
| 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die
| 2007
|align="center"| *
|-
| The Guardian
| UK
| Alternative Top 100
| 1999
|align="center"| 98
|-
| No Ripcord
| UK
| Top Albums 1990–1999
| 2013
|align="center"| 68
|-
| Pitchfork
| U.S.
| Top 100 Albums of the 1990s
| 2003
|align="center"| 75
|-
| Popblerd/bLISTerd
| U.S.
| Top 100 Albums of the 1990s
| 2011
|align="center"| 20
|-
| Porcys
| Poland
| The 100 Best Albums of the 1990s
| 2012
|align="center"| 84
|-
| Rolling Stone
| U.S.
| The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
| 2020
|align="center"| 201
|-
| Slant Magazine
| U.S.
| The 100 Best Albums of the 1990s
| 2011
|align="center"| 42
|-
| The Source
| U.S.
| The 100 Best Rap Albums of All Time
| 1998
|align="center"| *
|-
| Spin
| U.S.
| The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)
| 2015
|align="center"| 84
|-
| Treble
| U.S.
| Top 100 Albums of the 90s (10 Per Year)
| 2008
|align="center"| 10
|-
| Vibe
| U.S.
| 150 Albums That Define the Vibe Era (1992–2007)
| 2007
|align="center"| *
|-
| Vibe
| U.S.
| The 50 Greatest Albums Since '93
| 2013
|align="center"| 21
|-
| colspan="7" style="text-align:center; font-size:8pt;"| (*) designates lists which are unordered.
|}