"Against all odds, a bootleg recording of Cold Fact made its way to South Africa, just as the stronghold of apartheid was growing, and Rodriguez's anti-establishment storytelling, filtered through a psychedelia-tinged folk-rock lens, connected deeply with black Africans as well as liberal young Afrikaners. As word of mouth about the singer/songwriter spread, he became a South African sensation (naturally helped along when the government banned his records), eventually going not just platinum but also finding listeners holding him in the same artistic esteem as Bob Dylan and the Beatles."—All Music Guide