Song Information
The song is notable for its use of a sample from Joni Mitchell's song "Big Yellow Taxi", which originally appeared on her 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon. Jackson contacted Mitchell personally to ask for permission to sample her work; she stated that "veryone said it couldn't be done, but if 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." During performances on her 1998 tour, Mitchell would add elements of Q-Tip's rap into her own performances of "Big Yellow Taxi".
British singer Des'ree would later sue Jackson, stating that her 1991 single "Feel So High" was also sampled on "Got 'til It's Gone". Subsequent releases containing the track would credit Des'ree as a co-writer.
Production of "Got 'til It's Gone" was officially credited to Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. However, the hip hop collective The Ummah (composed of Q-Tip, J Dilla, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad) contest that they are the actual producers of the track. In an interview, J Dilla himself stated that he, Q-Tip, and Muhammad produced the original after Jackson met Q-Tip on the set of the 1993 film Poetic Justice. In a story published with Pitchfork, writer Nate Patrin commented on the production of the song, saying the song "bears all the hallmarks of The Ummah style: neo-soul electric pianos, subdued kicks paired with prominent snares, and bass that burbles so thickly that it flows instead of pops". J Dilla made a remix of the song titled "Got Til' Its Gone (Jay Dee's Revenge Remix)" where Patrin claims J Dilla was the actual producer saying "The revenge in question, then, is simply a matter of cranking up those aforementioned trademarks until the source is unmistakable. The bassline congeals, the keyboards are run through a rippling wah-wah, the titular Joni Mitchell loop fades in and out of focus-- it's the difference between a neon sign and a lava lamp".
Jackson has performed the song on many of her tours, including The Velvet Rope Tour, All for You Tour, and Rock Witchu Tour. The song was also used as interlude on her Number Ones: Up Close and Personal tour.
Rapper T.I.'s 2006 song "Why You Wanna" interpolates Q-Tip's vocals on "Got 'til It's Gone", using the refrain, "Now why you wanna go and do that?". Q-Tip featured on the remix to that song and the sentence is also similarly used in Q-Tip's verse in A Tribe Called Quest's 1998 song "Find a Way". At that time, Q-Tip left and the group had ceased operations the next year. Other notable songs where the same verse is used include rapper Common's song "The Questions".
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