«Escapade» is an upbeat song written and produced by Jackson and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for Jackson’s fourth album Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, and served as the follow-up to Jackson’s prior single «Rhythm Nation». Jackson, Jam and Lewis came up with the song’s theme after hearing the word used in a conversation, deciding it would make an interesting song title due to the word being uncommon. «We usually come up with the music first, then we try to think of a title that fits the way the music sounds», Jam said. «And ‘Escapade’ we thought was a cool word. It is kind of old fashioned — people don’t really say ‘Let’s go on an escapade’ anymore, but it really worked with that track.

The song was partially inspired by Martha & the Vandellas’s 1965 song «Nowhere to Run», which Jackson originally considered covering for the album, but instead chose to record a new song after a suggestion from producer Jimmy Jam. After the proposal, Jackson and her producers developed the song’s initial idea, which was based on having an anthem-like feel, and «Escapade» became one of the first songs to be recorded for the album.[4] Jam also described the song’s production and recording process, saying «While she was sitting in one room coming up with the lyrics, I put it on the 24-track. We hooked the drum machine up. On my left hand I played the bass, on the right hand I played the chord. And it was just enough for her to sing to, which we do a lot. Because we like to let her sing to as minimum of a track as we can do, then fill in the track around her so that her part is the main part of the song. With ‘Escapade,’ she sang it and we kept saying we’ll go back and redo the track…we never redid the track. There’s a keyboard bass and another thing, and that was it. All we added were the overdubs, little bells … because we’d gotten so used to the feel of the track, the mistakes and all, we ended up leaving it the way it was.