Songfacts®:

• Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake perform on this with Timbaland. Furtado duetted with Timbaland on her 2006 hit single "Promiscuous," making this track something of a favor returned. He has also produced a number of tracks for her, including "Promiscuous," "Maneater," "All Good Things (Come To An End)" and "Say It Right." For Justin Timberlake, he produced "SexyBack," "My Love" and "What Goes Around."
• The single is a dig at several unnamed music stars. Timbaland has confirmed in an interview with MTV that fellow producer Scott Storch, with whom he co-wrote Timberlake's 2002 single "Cry Me A River," is the target of his verse. Though the production of "Cry Me a River" is credited solely to Timbaland, Storch has claimed that he was responsible for producing it.
  
  There are contradictory reports that Justin Timberlake's target is either Janet Jackson or Prince, while Nelly Furtado has denied in interviews that her verse is about Fergie despite many reports to the contrary.
  
  Evidence that Timberlake had Prince in the crosshairs is his line, "If sexy never left, then why's everybody on my s--t?" Prince is attributed as saying "sexy never left," in response to Justin's hit "SexyBack."
• On the same day that MTV premiered the music video for this song, Scott Storch responded by releasing "Built Like Dat," featuring the Latino rapper Nox, which makes various accusations against Timbaland.
• Furtado expressed regret about contributing to this track in a December 2010 interview with The Metro: "I wish Justin, Timbaland and I hadn't put out that dis song 'Give It To Me,'" she said. "It was like the first ever pop dis song – a genre usually reserved for rap. We put a lot of negative energy out into the world."