The music video for " Got 'til It 's Gone " was directed by Mark Romanek and filmed at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles . It made its worldwide premiere on September 4 , 1997 , immediately preceding the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards , with the video airing on other music channels such as VH1 and BET later the same evening . Jackson wanted to work with Romanek because she believed him to be " amazing " , commenting , " I gravitate toward the directors that I really fall in love with ... " . After hearing the song , Romanek decided to use African photography as a motif , creating what he called a " pre-Apartheid celebration based on that African photography " . Romanek commented on the video 's theme , saying " ... it was a situation of what I was into at that time , and I was really into this magazine that was popular in South Africa called '' Drum Magazine '' . I guess it was sort of like the ' Life Magazine ' of the township , and the photography was stunning , and I said ' I would like to make a video that depicted Black culture that was n't so obsessed , as a lot of the hip-hop videos were in that period and still are , with less materialism and sexism . I just felt like ' there 's got to be other aspects of Black culture to depict ' " . Joni Mitchell also commented : " From the time music video began well into the late eighties there was a monstrous image of females being perpetrated without much exception . In the face of that I found this video to be full of humanity . Janet herself was lovely . It had dignity , and it was full of life " . Jackson stated that she was " very proud " of the video , adding it was " fun to make "
1997 MTV Video Music Awards
1997 MTV Video Music Awards
Got 'til It's Gone