"Got 'til It's Gone" is a song by the American singer Janet Jackson, featuring the rapper Q-Tip and the Canadian singer Joni Mitchell, from Jackson's sixth album, The Velvet Rope (1997). It was written by Jackson, Jam and Lewis, with additional writing by René Elizondo Jr. and Q-Tip. The song was produced by Jackson, Jam and Lewis, with Jam suggesting the repeated vocal sample of Mitchell. It was released as the lead single from The Velvet Rope in September 1997 by Virgin Records. The song was recorded at Flyte Tyme Studios in Edina, Minnesota. For "Got 'til It's Gone", Jackson opted for a less polished sound which resulted in a blend of R&B, pop, and hip-hop with traces of reggae influences.
"Got 'til It's Gone" was met with mostly positive reviews from music critics, with most praising its fusion of Jackson's pop style with hip-hop, and for its revealing theme. "Got 'til It's Gone" was not released as a commercial single in the United States, making it ineligible to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time. However, the song peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart and reached number three on the Billboard Hot R&B Airplay chart. Internationally, "Got 'til It's Gone" reached the top 20 in several European markets, including France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
The accompanying music video for "Got 'til It's Gone" was directed by Mark Romanek and filmed at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, and premiered right before the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. Jackson portrays a lounge singer in the video, which takes place during the time of apartheid in South Africa. It was called a masterpiece by critics, winning a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video. Jackson has performed "Got 'til It's Gone" on all of her concert tours since its release. The song was also covered by singer Marsha Ambrosius, and was also a source for several book titles.
Background and release In 1996, Janet Jackson renewed her contract with company Virgin Records for $80 million—the largest recording contract up to that time and a breakthrough she achieved for the second time in her career. She then began developing her sixth album, The Velvet Rope, drawing from her struggles with depression and intimacy. In an interview for MTV, she discussed how frequent depression caused her to take breaks from her music career. She felt this was heightened by her estrangement from the rest of the Jackson family. Jimmy Jam was aware of Jackson's difficulty, noticing how she would spontaneously cancel recording sessions and frequently appear troubled. Jackson discussed "Got 'til It's Gone" and The Velvet Rope album during an interview with Rolling Stone, saying: Singing these songs has meant digging up pain that I buried a long time ago. It's been hard and sometimes confusing. But I've had to do it. I've been burying pain my whole life. It's like kicking dirt under the carpet. At some point there's so much dirt that you start to choke. Well, I've been choking. My therapy came in writing these songs. Then I had to find the courage to sing them or else suffer the consequences – a permanent case of the blues. The song's music video and promotional photos were the first glimpse of the new image Jackson developed for The Velvet Rope campaign, which combined elements from Gothic and African cultures and consisted of red hair, nasal and body piercings, and several tattoos. In an interview with Dotmusic, she commented how she was a fan of Joni Mitchell's work, and that she knew she wanted a rapper on this album, but did not know who and on what song she could do that, until she found Q-Tip was the "perfect person" for "Got 'til It's Gone". She described his voice as "mellow and laid-back like the vocal". "Got 'til It's Gone" was serviced to multiple airplay formats, including pop, urban, rhythmic, and adult contemporary/jazz, on September 2, 1997, as the lead single from The Velvet Rope. In the United Kingdom, Virgin released the song on September 22, 1997, as a CD single, a 12-inch vinyl single, and a cassette single. Later that year, on November 10, a two-disc 12-inch single was released. In Japan, a CD single was issued on October 29, 1997.
Composition and lyrical interpretation
"Got 'til It's Gone" was written by Jackson, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, René Elizondo Jr., Q-Tip and Joni Mitchell, and features guest vocals from the latter artists. It contains a sample from Mitchell's 1970 song "Big Yellow Taxi", selected by Jam but approved by Jackson because she was a longtime fan of Mitchell's music through her brother Randy. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by EMI Music Publishing, the song is set in common time with a key of F major. Jackson's vocals range between G3 to C5. The song has a moderate tempo of 96 beats per minute. For "Got 'til It's Gone", Jackson opted for a less polished sound, the song itself is a blend of various genres such as R&B, pop, and hip-hop; it also has influences of reggae. It was inspired by J Dilla's remix of the Brand New Heavies' song "Sometimes", released a few months prior in 1997. Jam spoke of the song's crossover potential, commenting, "Janet has always been one of those artists that bridges R&B and hip-hop and pop and rock". We really thought 'Got 'Til It's Gone' would be accepted [by all audiences] across the board". Jackson revealed that lyrically, "Got 'Til It's Gone" is about a great life lesson she learned—appreciate what you have while you have it. When discussing the song with Jet magazine, Jackson stated, "In my life, I try to take nothing for granted, even if I don't always succeed".
Jackson told why she felt compelled to combine the folk elements from Mitchell with Q-Tip's rap verse, saying "Him and Joni Mitchell have something in common: what they write is poetry". "I think of folk and rap among similar strands. Especially lyrically because you can put so much content into one song. Hip-hop is great and I think it's good that it talks of the harsh realities of life in the ghettos". Speaking about Q-Tip's appearance, Jackson said, "Q-Tip represents all that's creative and strong about rap. He's real and right to the point, and I loved working with him". Jackson has frequently mentioned Mitchell as an influence and artist she's admired throughout her career, which led to Jackson asking Mitchell to contribute vocals to "Got 'til It's Gone". Jackson stated, "As a kid I was drawn to Joni Mitchell records. Joni's songs spoke to me in an intimate, personal way." Jackson contacted Mitchell personally to ask for permission to use the sample, stating "everyone said it couldn't be done, but if [Mitchell] was going to say no to me, I had to hear it from her myself [...] I called her and told her I wanted her to hear it before she made a decision. Everybody was surprised when a couple of days later, she said yes". Describing the situation, Jackson recalled, "I told her I'd like to send her a tape before she made a decision. She listened to it, and called back a few days later and said she absolutely loved it and would be honored if we did, so I was very excited".
Des'ree controversy After the release of "Got 'til It's Gone", British singer Des'ree thought the song was very similar to her own song "Feel So High" from her 1992 album Mind Adventures, and sued Jackson and the producers of the song. In July 1998, she was awarded an out-of-court settlement granting her 25 per cent of the publishing royalties from the song; around £2 million. Des'ree later said that her "aim wasn't to get money out of her", but it was purely for justice, as she wanted Jackson to recognize that she had "borrowed" from her work and not given her credit.
Critical reception "Got 'til It's Gone" received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Billboard magazine said that the song displays "finesse" and "marked maturity", saying, "Apparently, 'tis the season for pop divas to explore edgy hip-hop territory" and "this jam is a deftly structured study in subtle vocal styling and raw keep rhythms". During the review they also noted the departure from Jackson's upbeat pop and dance style might confuse listeners at first, though was ultimately a wise decision. In its twentieth anniversary, the magazine ranked it as the 29th greatest pop song of 1997. Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph approved the song as "a deliciously light confection". Chris Willman from Entertainment Weekly said that the "relaxed groove" of the song is "certainly an enigmatic teaser". Rob Fitzpatrick of The Guardian described it as an "absolutely sublime pop production", saying Jackson sounded "fresher than ever". Fitzpatrick also praised the song's simple production, adding the "revolutionary use of space and dynamics worked wonders on the radio and in clubs". Jet magazine commented, "Janet has her fans up on the dance floor with the album's first hit Got Til It's Gone", calling Q-Tip's guest verse "street smart". Elysa Gardner from Los Angeles Times also gave the track a positive review, saying the "cool, breezy hip-hop" of the single "cannily intertwines a Joni Mitchell sample and a seductive guest rap by Q-Tip."
Gil Kaufman from MTV observed the song "sets the tone for the new, more experimental material", complete with "a spooky vocal loop", "old-school DJ scratching" and "layering it all with Jackson's fragile, whispered vocals, the song is then, now and later all at the same time". British magazine Music Week rated it four out of five, picking it as Single of the Week. They added, "Jackson's most untypical single to date, this loosely woven groove steals a sample from Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi and throws in a Q-Tip rap for good measure to subtly work its magic." Editor Alan Jones wrote, "Her voice is sweet and pretty, and the Mitchell sample sounds surprisingiy appropriate." Jon Pareles from The New York Times considered it "hip-hop-tinged R&B", also noticing "a depressive sobriety" in Jackson's vocals. A reviewer from People magazine praised the track as "an understated, hip-hop pastiche that features the unlikely but inspired pairing of rapper Q-Tip and a sampled Joni Mitchell". Martin Johnson from San Francisco Weekly classified it as "a clever pastiche" which blended well with Jackson's vocals and Q-Tip's "low-key rapping". John Christopher Farley from Time magazine considered it an "R&B reworking" which "draws smartly" from the sample.
Chart performance "Got 'til It's Gone" was not released as a commercial single in the United States, making it ineligible to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 and several other charts under the chart rules that existed at that time. The song peaked at number 36 on the Hot 100 Airplay and number three on Hot R&B Airplay charts. In Canada, the song debuted at number 41 on the RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart on the issue dated September 15, 1997, and peaked at number 19 on November 17, 1997. In Australia, "Got 'til It's Gone" debuted at number 13 on the issue dated October 5, 1997, peaking at number 10 and staying on the ARIA Singles Chart for 15 weeks and was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for 30,000 copies shipped. In New Zealand, it debuted at its peak of number four, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. It was also certified gold by Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ) for shipping 15,000 copies across the country.