Songfacts®:

• Eve set herself apart from the fleet of female rappers in the gangsta subgenre by lacing her lyrics and look with a feminine touch. A the "first lady" of the Ruff Ryders label, she held court as the only woman on the roster, striking a balance of toughness and class.
  
  In this song, she's after that gangsta love, putting the moves on a guy who's in her sights. It's a role reversal of a common lyrical theme in hip-hop and R&B.
• Alicia Keys is the featured vocalist on this song and appears in the video. The part where she sings, "I just want to rock you" is sampled from a 1981 Yarbrough & Peoples song called "Don't Stop The Music."
• "Gangsta Lovin'" was the first single from Eve's third album, Eve-Olution. Around this time, she was breaking into movies, with a small role in the film XXX and a bigger role in Barbershop, where she plays the only female barber - a role she felt suited for because she was the only woman on the Ruff Ryders label.
• Irv Gotti, who also did "Can I Get A..." for Jay-Z and "What's My Name" for DMX, produced this track along with Ja Rule producer Channel 7.
• The video was done by Director X, a Hype Williams disciple whose clients include Nelly, Rihanna, and Kanye West. The clip plays out the story in the song, with Eve going after a guy at a party and landing him.