Janet’s Velvet Rope Era Arrived With Beauty, Bruises and a Beat
A Woman Crush Always is Janet Jackson. And 29 years ago, “Got ‘Til It’s Gone” featuring Q-Tip and Joni Mitchell arrived as the lead single from The Velvet Rope — one of the clearest introductions to the more vulnerable, introspective side of Janet’s artistry.
Built around a repeated sample from Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” the track folded R&B, hip-hop and folk texture into something loose, smoky and distinctly Janet, with Q-Tip sliding in for a verse rather than breaking the atmosphere. The Recording Academy has since pointed to that mixture of hip-hop and folk as one of the song’s defining moves.
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Inside The Velvet Rope Era
Revisit Janet’s landmark 1997 album and the music that opened one of her most personal chapters.
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The rollout also introduced Janet’s striking new era: ’90s red hair, body art and a mix of Gothic and African-inspired styling. It was a visual reset that matched the record’s emotional shift — less polished perfection, more interior life, sensuality, anxiety and self-examination.
Then came the Mark Romanek-directed music video. Filmed at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, the clip transforms the space into a stylized celebration inspired by pre-apartheid South African photography. Janet appears as a lounge singer inside a world of dancing, fashion, heat and political imagery, while Romanek lets the camera linger on faces and bodies with a richness that still looks extraordinary nearly three decades later.
The video went on to win the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video, with Romanek credited as director. And yes — still one of Janet’s greatest. The song and visual together did exactly what a lead single should do: announce that the next chapter would not be business as usual.
Janet Jackson’s Got ‘Til It’s Gone Official Music Video
Watch Janet Jackson’s official “Got ‘Til It’s Gone” music video, directed by Mark Romanek for the 1997 The Velvet Rope era.
Got ‘Til It’s Gone: INYIM Social Cut
Watch INYIM’s social cut celebrating Janet Jackson’s 1997 single and The Velvet Rope era.
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Source: Virgin Records, Recording Academy and Janet Jackson’s official music video.
