“Got ‘Til It’s Gone” was the lead single from Janet Jackson’s 1997 album The Velvet Rope.

Though Janet’s career-long production team Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis are credited as producers on this #1 song, its bassy neo-soul sound—an entirely different environment for Janet—points to beatsmith J Dilla as the chief architect of its sound. Both Dilla and Q-Tip were said to be chafed at this slanted producer credit. The duo, collectively known as The Ummah, dealt out their comeuppance by later issuing a remix of the single with the selfsame hallmarks of their original production and titling it “Got ‘Til It’s Gone (Ummah Jay Dee’s Revenge Mix).”

“Got ‘Til It’s Gone” is centered on a sample of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” where the folk troubadour sings “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got 'til it’s gone?” Q-Tip echoes back ad-libs throughout the song saying, “Joni Mitchell never lies.”

A Mark Romanek-directed music video for the song won Janet a Grammy Award for Best Music Video – Short Form. Though the themed clip was inspired by a South African magazine called Drum) featured in the video, it was not filmed on location, but in a soundstage in Los Angeles. The video also debuted Janet’s now-iconic four-ponytail hairstyle, also reprised in the music video for the follow-up single “Together Again.”

Jackson spoke with Jet magazine about the meaning of this song:

“‘Got 'Til It’s Gone’ is about a great lesson learned – appreciate what you have while you have it. In my life, I try to take nothing for granted, even if I don’t always succeed.”