Songfacts®:

• A cut from the soundtrack for the DC comics-inspired movie Suicide Squad, "Gangsta" was premiered by Zane Lowe on Beats 1 on August 1, 2016. Director David Ayer told Lowe the song "blends into the fabric of the film" and is used extensively.
  
  "I heard this and a few bars in and I was like this is a beast, this is gonna smash, this is it. But the other thing is there was this emotional quality to it, that sort of raw, broken yet strong, haunting quality to it," he added. "I think I threw it on a flash drive and ran in to the editor and I'm like dude you gotta throw this on picture I need to see this right now and it just instantly worked."
• Fans soon started drawing parallels between the song's lyrics and Suicide Squad's depiction of Harley Quinn's relationship with The Joker. When Lowe asked Ayer if the song has any particular connection to Harley Quinn, the director replied that the track, "speaks a lot to relationships and making a choice and - at the same time - how there's also power in surrendering to somebody."
• The song was co-written by Skylar Grey, whose other credits include Eminem and Rihanna's "Love The Way You Lie," Dr Dre's "I Need a Doctor" and Diddy-Dirty Money's "Coming Home." She recalled to Genius:
  
  "The 'Gangsta' hook was actually written prior to being asked to work on the Suicide Squad soundtrack, but the movie studio heard it early on and asked for it to be finished. I co-wrote it with Jacob Luttrell and Jason Evigan."