Songfacts®:

• Schoolboy Q opens his major label debut album, Oxymoron, with this ode to the gangsta lifestyle. It begins with the first of several cameos by Q's 4-year-old daughter Joy, where she spits "F--k rap, my daddy's a gangsta."
• This is one of two songs on Oxymoron that Chicago-based production duo Nez & Rio supplied the beat for. They previously contributed production for a couple of tracks on Schoolboy Q's 2012 album Habits & Contradictions.
• Speaking about the song at a February 2014 listening session for Oxymoron, Q said: "When I first made ['Gangsta'] all I wanted to say was that my grandma showed me my first strap. That's all I wanted to put in the song. I just thought that was so gangsta. It was kind of weird, too, now that I really think about it. She used to take her bullets out of the gun and leave the clip in her room and let me play with her gun. I was an only child so I probably got on her nerves that much that she finally gave me her burner, like, 'Here, get the f--k out my face.' [Laughs] I just wanted to say that so bad."
• Q's label boss Anthony Tiffith told Billboard magazine about his reaction to hearing the rapper's story: "ScHoolboy is gangsta. When he first told me that story, I was like, 'Your grandmother gave you your first gun? Really? I'm scared of your grandma - I'm going to make sure your contract is right!' "