This is 50 Cent’s first single that he put out after he got singed to Shady/Aftermath. This song first appeared on G Unit’s mixtape No Mercy, No Fear, then it was put on the 8 Mile soundtrack and it was then put on the album Get Rich Or Die Tryin' as a bonus track. R&B girl group Blaque made a female version of this song titled “No Ganksta”.

50 Cent explained the meaning of the word “Wanksta” in a 2003 interview with Jake Arnott:

Jake Arnott: And another claim to fame: you introduced the word ‘wanksta’ into the language with your track ‘Wanksta’. That word sort of means something in England – does it mean the same in America?

50 Cent: Nah, nah! ‘Wanksta’s like… we use that terminology to mean a fake gangster. When people told me about the word 'wanker’…

It’s believed that this track is aimed at Ja Rule but 50 Cent denied this in a MuchMusic interview, stating that while the song itself was not directed at Ja Rule, he was a good example of a wanksta. In his December 2002 interview with Dubcnn, 50 Cent says this song wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular:

Dubcnn.com: Was the track Wanksta aimed at anybody special?

50 Cent: Nah, nah man, it’s just, I mean in general. Alot of Wankstas out there, you gotta make records like that.

50 Cent contradicted himself in his 2007 BET Testimony where he says he wrote Wanksta about Ja Rule:

Well ‘Wanksta’, I wrote that record about Ja

In 2003, Eminem did a version of this song “Wanksta [Eminem’s version]” which is a diss track towards Ja Rule.