For the 2014 issue of "XXL" that celebrated 40 years of hip hop, the track was listed as one of the five best singles of 2007 by the magazine. In 2009, the track was ranked as the fifth best song of the 2000s by "Complex". On a 2017 list of the greatest rap songs since 2000 by Cleveland.com, the track was ranked at number 56. In 2014, "LA Weekly" named "Can't Tell Me Nothing" the 17th best song in hip hop history. "Complex" named the track their song of the "Complex" decade, which spanned from when the magazine was founded in 2002 to its 10th anniversary in 2012. The track was later ranked by "Complex" as West's second best song in 2018, while the magazine listed it among rap's most motivational songs two years later.