Usher wrote "You Make Me Wanna..." with Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal, who also produced and played musical instruments on the tune.

Tan and Dupri mixed the record with assistance from John and Brian Frye at Studio LaCoCo, in Atlanta, Georgia.

[1] "You Make Me Wanna..." draws from the genres of R&B, soul and pop,[2] and heavily utilizes the acoustic guitar,[3][4] while also incorporating hi-hat and bell instrumentation.

[15] Larry Flick from Billboard wrote, "Vocally strumming his notes as gently and powerfully as the guitar player who accompanies him, Usher makes no enemies by professing an attraction to a friend while being involved with another.

The track promises to be a hit among all generations and genders as his loyal young female fan base will eagerly jump aboard.

Older women will easily fall prey to the very thought of his musings, while men now have an interesting avenue to express similar feelings.

[18] The magazine's Alan Jones praised it as "a superbly sublime and soulful semi-acoustic debut which recalls similarly styled singles from Tony Rich and Babyface.

"[20] David Fricke from Rolling Stone said it is one thing: "tiptoe love funk with a spare, gangsta air and Usher doing overdubbed ensemble singing like a one-man Blackstreet.

"[21] When reviewing My Way, Ian Hyland from Sunday Mirror stated that, "Tracks like 'You Make Me Wanna...', 'Nice And Slow' and 'Slow Jam' should put you in the mood".

[22] A writer for The Vindicator wrote, "The song is a melodic blend of Usher's smooth, youthful voice and a strong, upbeat rhythm track.

[30] In the 1997 Pazz & Jop critics' poll administered by The Village Voice, "You Make Me Wanna..." tied for thirtieth place in the singles category with Radiohead's "Paranoid Android".

In its first week of release, "You Make Me Wanna..." received 1,329 spins,[33] and by early October 1997, the song had made fifty million listener impressions on US R&B radio.

[34] "You Make Me Wanna..." stood as the song with the longest run on the genre chart by a male artist until K'Jon's "On the Ocean" lasted longer in 2010.

[52] It starts with Usher sitting in an orange wall recess, reaching for a guitar, before cutting to a scene of him standing in a white-and-purple circular room, wearing an open shirt.

[5][53] The video continues with the singer performing dance routines throughout; interspersed are scenes of Usher singing the song on a background of blue pipes.

Toward the end of the video, he takes off his shirt in the circular room, and finally Usher and his backup dancers step out of their shoes and walk away.