The album is Rapsody's first following her signing with Roc Nation in 2016,[4] and follows her mixtape Crown (2016).[5]
Rapsody has previously collaborated with several of the guests on the record, including Kendrick Lamar, who she collaborated with on the track "Complexion (A Zulu Love)" from Lamar's 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly,[1] which is credited with gaining Rapsody wider attention than she had had previously.[6] Lamar also rapped on the track "Rock the Bells" from her 2011 mixtape For Everything.[4] Rapsody also appeared on Anderson .Paak's album Malibu, on "Without You".[1] Paak also appeared on Crown.[7]
In early September, Rapsody released "You Should Know", featuring Busta Rhymes, as the first single from the album.[8] In an Instagram post, Rhymes called the album "the best album I've heard not only from a female MC but in Hip hop period as well that I've personally had a chance to hear from top to bottom in its entirety that I've probably in the last 10yrs [sic]".[4]
The guest appearances for the album were revealed in a video featuring Rapsody in a mural surrounded by the guests that appear on the record.[2]
Laila's Wisdom received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 87, based on seven reviews.[9]
Michael J. Warren of Exclaim! called it Rapsody's best work, as well as "the best amongst her peers, the sort of album that transcends the lane she was in beforehand, transcends whatever antiquated gender biases may still permeate the genre and puts her in the same category as your favourite rapper (who's now clamouring for a Rapsody feature)."[11] Jesse Fairfax of HipHopDX found that "Rapsody evolves on this latest album—increasingly comfortable revealing a wide range of personal facets while developing into an apt storyteller."[12] Writing for XXL, Peter A. Berry described the album as "a smooth, cohesive and powerfully insightful effort."[16] In his review for AllMusic, writer Andy Kellman praised Rapsody's progression on the album, writing that "'Laila's Wisdom' is Evans' lyrically broadest and musically richest work, yet it doesn't have the sprawling quality of the first album. There's a finer, detail-filled shape to it, from the 'Young, Gifted, and Black' (Aretha)-sampling title track to 'Jesus Coming,' an astonishing finale in which Evans relates the aftermath of a playground tragedy from multiple perspectives."[10]
