Brad Mills of Allmusic gave the album three out of five stars and called the album "solid from start to finish. Nines raspy, deep catchy voice is ever present, and, with really simple beats complemented by hard basslines, its easy to throw this back in for another round. Smoothe da Hustler makes a welcome appearance on "Make or Take," while every other track on the album bangs just as hard".
Commercially, Cloud 9 failed to sell as many copies as Nine Livez and only reached No. 45 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, not selling enough copies to reach the Billboard 200. Due to Profile Records financial problems, the album featured virtually no promotion, with the exception of the music videos for "Lyin King" and "Make or Take". The lack of promotion is the main reason behind the albums poor sales.