"Give It 2 Me" is a song by American singer and songwriter Madonna, featured on her 11th studio album Hard Candy. It was released on June 24, 2008, by Warner Bros. Records as the second single from the album. The song was written by Madonna as an anthemic, self-manifesto song which, although it appears to be about dance and sex, is a reference to Madonna's career spanning three decades in the music industry. Musically, "Give It 2 Me" is an upbeat dance-pop song, featuring instrumentation from West African percussion and cowbells. Backing vocals are provided by Pharrell Williams.
"Give It 2 Me" received positive reviews from contemporary critics. The song became Madonna's 39th number-one single on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. It charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, and reached a peak of 57 only, due to limited radio play. The song topped the music charts in Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain, while it peaked within the top ten of the charts in many other nations, including Canada, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
The music video featured Madonna recreating her look from the Elle magazine May covergirl photo shoot, and was directed by photographer Tom Munro. Williams had a guest appearance in the video. It received positive response for her retro-inspired look. Madonna performed "Give It 2 Me" on both the promotional tour for Hard Candy, and the 2008–09 Sticky & Sweet Tour. The song was additionally performed at a special concert for The MDNA Tour at Madison Square Garden in 2012. "Give It 2 Me" received a Grammy nomination in 2009 in the Best Dance Recording category.
Writing and inspiration
"Give It 2 Me" was written by Madonna and Pharrell Williams as a self-empowerment song. Ingrid Sischy from Interview magazine asked Madonna whether the song had the ability to become a party anthem in Ibiza. Madonna responded that she liked the idea of everybody dancing to "Give It 2 Me", treating it as a party anthem. When asked about the inspiration behind the song, Madonna said, "It's ['Give It 2 Me'] very anthemic. I basically wrote it so I could have a great time doing it in a stadium. The words are very autobiographical. 'Got no boundaries, got no limits. [...] Don't stop me now. [...] If it's against the law, arrest me.' [...] Yes, that's me. It's the provocative me. The boring, predictable me." In an interview with MTV Australia, Madonna explained that a prominent theme of the Hard Candy album was about incorporating the image of a boxer, an idea which has been repeated within the song. According to her, "['Give It 2 Me'] is basically [opposite in meaning]. I'm not [...], 'give me all you got' [kind of person], so it's quite a sort of tough stance." Initially, Madonna had decided that the title of the song was to be used for her then-unnamed album. This was changed following the release of a similarly named song by Timbaland.
Composition
"Give It 2 Me" is an upbeat dance-pop song. Caryn Ganz of Rolling Stone said that the song has a club-like synth arrangement with a hip hop "feel to it". Chris Williams of Entertainment Weekly felt that the hip hop feel is brought about by the use of snare drums. According to the sheet music published by Alfred Publishing, the song is set in common time, with a medium dance tempo of 132 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of G minor, with Madonna's vocal range spanning from G3 to C5. The song has a basic sequence of Dm–Gm–E–F–Am–Dm as its chord progression.
"Give It 2 Me" starts with an offbeat rhythm and is accompanied by the sound of West African percussion. The song builds into a crescendo as Madonna sings the line, "If it's against the law, arrest me, if you can handle it, undress me". This is followed by synthesized musical arrangement, as Madonna starts singing the line, "When the lights go down and there's no one left, I can go on and on and on." An interlude, where Madonna continuously chants the words "Get Stupid", is also present. According to Miles Marshall Lewis of The Village Voice, the song contains elements of the work of Nile Rodgers.
"Give It 2 Me" is written as a self-manifesto song. Lyrically, though the song appears to be about dancing and sex, in reality Madonna uses sarcasm to emphasize the longevity of her career. The lyrics explain that she does not want to retire from her career at that moment and possesses the ability to continue, as noted in the lines "Don't stop me now, no need to catch my breath, I can go on and on and on."