Madonna sang "Give It 2 Me" on the promotional concerts offered for Hard Candy, on her set at the BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, and on 2008―2009's Sticky & Sweet Tour.

[1] For Hard Candy, her eleventh studio album and her final with Warner Bros., she chose to "work her magic" on the sound of urban contemporary music, and collaborated with American singer Justin Timberlake, rapper Timbaland, record production duo The Neptunes ―Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo― as well as Nate "Danja" Hills.

[a] A manifesto song, its lyrics are ambiguous; they appear to be about sex and dancing, but are actually about success, survival, "focusing on the here and now [and] not looking back and moving forward".

[17] Caryn Ganz from Rolling Stone magazine, explained that "Give It 2 Me" incorporates a "thick" synthesizer, similar to the one Danja used on Britney Spears’ fifth studio album, Blackout (2007).

[21][22] On April 21, 2008, one week before Hard Candy's release in the United States, "Give It 2 Me" and other songs from the album leaked online.

[26][27] Chris Willman from Entertainment Weekly said it sounded as if Madonna's 1983 singles "Holiday" and "Lucky Star" had been "filter[ed] through hip-hop's sonic boom", concluding that it was Hard Candy's "most exciting banger".

[28] Michael Roffman from online magazine Consequence also felt it echoed Madonna's past work, but, "there are ties to its modernity that prevent it from being too nostalgic".

[13] Miles Marshall Lewis from The Village Voice perceived "effects straight outta 'Material Girl' and sonic allusions to Nile Rodgers" on "Give It 2 Me".

[21] The single was compared to Rick James' "Super Freak" (1981) by both Jon Pareles from The New York Times, and Alexis Petridis from The Guardian.

[...] [I]t sounds impossibly winning, like a flashback to an alternate-universe version of Madonna’s early career where she got together with Arthur Russell and made a bunch of classic weirdo club-slayers for the NY underground".

The staff of NME, BBC's Mark Savage, Pitchfork's Tom Ewing, and Chris Gerard from WRC-TV all singled out "Give It 2 Me", even though they gave Hard Candy negative reviews.

[32][20][16][10] Savage felt the track had a "cute, bouncy beat and sense of humour that has been missing from Madonna's music since her Dick Tracy days", while Gerard compared it to something Kylie Minogue would release.

[33] While Easlea deemed it "irresistibly anthemic", Parade's Samuel R. Murrian concluded that, "if you ever need an extra boost of energy near the end of a strenuous workout, ['Give It 2 Me'] works like a charm".

[34][35] Rolling Stone's Caryn Ganz referred to "Give It 2 Me" as a "thumpy self-empowerment anthem", in which "the creative tension between Madonna and the Neptunes' Pharrell crackles".

Chuck Arnold, writing for Entertainment Weekly, opined that, "a bit of silly goofiness during that 'get stupid' bridge with Pharrell can't deny ['Give It 2 Me''s] insistent bounce".

[69] Filmed in black-and-white during a photoshoot for Elle magazine, the singer wears clothes provided by labels like Chanel and Roberto Cavalli; these include a chiffon blouse, cowboy hat, boots and panties.

[70] By his part, Eric Wilson from The New York Times pointed out that the videos for "Give It 2 Me" and its predecessor "4 Minutes", didn't yield a "breakout Madonna look, nothing like her instant personas of the '80s or '90s".

[71] "Give It 2 Me" was considered Madonna's 39th greastest music video by Louis Virtel from The Backlot, and is one of her most underrated according to VH1's Christopher Rossa, who deemed it, "gorgeous AF [...] glossy and dizzying, chock-full of sexy moves and camera tricky".

[74] Madonna sang "Give It 2 Me" on the promotional concerts offered for Hard Candy, which took place at New York's Roseland Ballroom, on April 30, 2008, and at Paris' Olympia hall on May 6.

[75][76] She wore a sleeveless zip-up top that had the word "Hard" in silver letters on the front and "Candy" on the back, and sang surrounded by two male dancers in durags who, "encouraged the crowd to hop up on the track's synth-amped chorus", as noted by Caryn Ganz.

[84] On one of that tour's New York concerts, on November 13, South Korean entertainer Psy joined Madonna onstage for a mashup performance of "Give It 2 Me" and his own "Gangnam Style".

[85] From the Los Angeles Times, Todd Martens pointed out that, "[Madonna and Psy] seemed at a loss for how to interact outside the lighthearted confines of his 'Gangnam Style'".