It was made available following her crowning as the winner of the seventh season of the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race.

Consisting of five dance-pop, electronic, and avant-garde tracks, Gagged was released as a digital EP, and was also made available via streaming services.

Its lyrics emphasize sexual fetishism and gender identity, based in part on Chachki's personal experience working as a dominatrix's assistant.

In an interview with the website GossipGay, Violet Chachki explained that Gagged was intended to build "a full creative experience" for her performances in terms of music and visuals.

[3] Oscar Raymundo of The Huffington Post wrote that the project reflected Chachki's ambitions to be an "auteur with complete creative control.

"[2] The song's titles were noted for their explicitly sexual connotations by Salt Lake City Weekly's Tiffany Frandsen, who described them as "hid[ing] no shame, no secrets.

The lead single "Bettie" was released on June 2, the day after her crowning as the winner of the seventh season of the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race.

[22] The video explores the theme of a double life, which Chachki said was inspired by Bettie Page's conversion to evangelical Christianity and her retirement from work as a pin-up model.

[19] "Vanguard" was released as the second single on June 30; the music video was uploaded to Chachki's official YouTube account the previous day.

"[8] GossipGay called the EP "refreshing" and "fun",[3] and Stephen Wyatt of Out & About Newspaper wrote that it included "dynamic club tracks that make you want to get up and dance.

[23] The single "Bettie" was chosen as an example of the best music released by a RuPaul's Drag Race contestant by the website Pitchfork's Andy Emitt.

Emitt praised it for being transgressive, writing that both the song and the video represented "the boldness of the rising generation of queer and trans* artists who eschew comfortably 'safe' representations of sexuality in favor of discomforting the audience they still mean to attract… and arouse.