Throwback Thursday #6: Janet Jackson's "Got Till its Gone"

For this edition of throwback Thursday, I wanted to discuss about the significance of Janet Jackson's song Got till it's Gone featuring famous rapper, Q-tip and legendary singer, Joni Mitchell.

Got till it's Gone was the lead single off of Janet's sixth studio album, The Velvet Rope. The Velvet Rope was quite different from her previous work. . Janet's early albums such as Control - which expressed Janet's freedom as a young women or Rhythm Nation 1814 - which explored topics such as racism within society defined both of their titles of her best successful albums. However, The Velvet Rope holds something special.

The Velvet Rope was Janet's most personal album. The album comprises many themes of depression, abuse, love, loss, loneliness, and friendship. All together, Janet was able to change the course of alternative R&B. Since tackling those type of themes - which was taboo at the time, Janet was able to do with grace and gained respect to her audience as well.

This particular song was quite different of what Janet has done in the past. The song had a downtempo- trip-hop sound, which was widely popular in the 90s. Larry Flick from 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".

With adding a touch of Q-tip rhyme skills and sampling off from Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi, it was already a bonafide hit.

The song received many positive reviews from many music critics. Even though the single was not a commercial single in the United States, it still ranked number 6 at Hot 100 Airplays and was number 3 in the R&B/Hip-hop Airplays chart. Even though this song received chart success, the music video speaks volumes. The director of the music video, Mark Romanek, wanted to capture the essence of black culture, more specifically the aparteid era of South Africa.