It features Lazy Jay, the alias of Belgian disc jockey Jef Martens and his brother Toon.

[1] Initially released as a free download, "212" achieved commercial success in Europe, reaching the top 20 in the United Kingdom and charting in the Benelux region.

A black-and-white music video was released on September 13, 2011, featuring Banks dancing and rapping to the song in front of a brick wall.

American rapper Azealia Banks began rapping after watching her high school boyfriend and his friends freestyle.

[6] Banks began writing "212" in the middle of 2011, a month before getting evicted from her apartment in Dyckman Street in the Inwood neighborhood north of Harlem.

[18] The song, written at 126 beats per minute,[19] samples the musical base of Lazy Jay's "Float My Boat", an instrumental house track.

[20][21] According to Pitchfork's Carrie Battan, Banks delivers her vocals with "solid, straightforward flows, guttural yelps, top-shelf singing, triple-X raunch, and a smug talk-rap cadence".

Michael Cragg of The Guardian praised the song, describing it as "a startling three and a half minutes of attitude" and calling it "incredible".

[22] Thomas H. Green of The Daily Telegraph described the track as "a potty-mouthed sex song that encapsulates the way the current US explosion in EDM has adapted and adopted European rave, mixing the style with hip-hop and R&B stylistic tics".

[27] New Musical Express positioned "212" as number eighteen on their 50 Best Tracks Of 2011, calling it "mischievous, quick-witted and full of filthy cunnilanguage [...] it's made Azealia Banks the coolest girl on the planet, and it delivered on 2011's forward-thinking promise".

[29] Pitchfork placed it at number nine on their Top 100 Tracks of 2011, stating, "If it were judged only on its visceral thrill, '212' would still be one of 2011's best, an unashamed banger in a mostly mid-tempo year.

Greene, wearing glasses and a plain white shirt, maintains eye contact with the camera, displaying a subtle smile and gently nodding his head in rhythm.