Magna Carta Holy Grail

Untitled

Magna Carta... Holy Grail is the twelfth studio album by American rapper Jay Z. It was made available for free digital download for Samsung customers by the Jay Z Magna Carta app on July 4, 2013, and released for retail sale on July 8, 2013, by Roc-A-Fella and Roc Nation while being distributed by Universal. The album was promoted through various commercials presented by Samsung and was not preceded by any retail singles. It features guest appearances by Justin Timberlake, Nas, Rick Ross, Frank Ocean and Beyoncé Knowles. Production on the album was primarily handled by Timbaland and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, while other producers included Boi-1da, Mike Will Made It, Hit-Boy, Mike Dean, No ID, The-Dream, Swizz Beatz, and Pharrell Williams among others.

Upon its release Magna Carta... Holy Grail was met with mixed reviews from music critics, who were divided in their opinion about the album. On the day of its physical release in the United States, the album was certified Platinum by the RIAA for shipments of 1,000,000 copies, due to the unprecedented digital download deal with Samsung. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 528,000 copies in its first week, making it Jay-Z's 13th consecutive studio album to top the chart. Many of the album's songs charted on various countries' charts, including "Holy Grail", "Tom Ford", "FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt", "Oceans", "Crown", "Picasso Baby" and "Part II (On the Run)" even without being released as an official single.

Background

On September 23, 2010, Q-Tip confirmed working on Jay-Z's follow up album to The Blueprint 3, saying the album was to hit stores by spring 2011. In May 2012, it was reported that he was working on new music with Roc Nation producer Jahlil Beats. In an interview with XXL, Beats stated: "Me and Jay-Z been going back and forth. He picked a couple of my joints that he’s working on. I don’t even wanna say too much about Jay, but we definitely working on some stuff. I haven’t even sent him a bunch of beats. I sent him my favorite stuff. He hit me right back like, ‘Yo, I’ma go in on this,’ or, ‘I like this.’” The album process was kept a secret, while The-Dream hinted about it in April 2013 in an interview with Hot 97.

Leading up to the album's announcement, Jay-Z served as an executive producer for both the film The Great Gatsby and its soundtrack, The Great Gatsby: Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film. He and film director Baz Luhrmann worked together for two years, "translating the Jazz Age sensibility of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel into the musical equivalents of our own times, through the blending of hip-hop, traditional jazz and other contemporary musical textures". On his approach to the project, Luhrmann said: "The question for me in approaching Gatsby was how to elicit from our audience the same level of excitement and pop cultural immediacy toward the world that Fitzgerald did for his audience? And in our age, the energy of jazz is caught in the energy of hip-hop." The opening song, "100$ Bill" by Jay-Z contains a chopped and screwed beat, electro-rap elements and is written in the perspective of a modern-day Gatsby, it was both co-written and produced by E*vax one half of electronic rock duo Ratatat.

Recording

Magna Carta... Holy Grail was mostly recorded at Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz' Jungle City Studios in New York, where Justin Timberlake and Beyonce Knowles were also working on their albums at the time. Jay described the recording as having "minimalist approach" to give the album a "90s feel."

The songs "Oceans" and "Holy Grail" were recorded in 2011 during the recording sessions for Jay's collaborative album with Kanye West Watch the Throne. West wanted the two songs to appear on Watch the Throne, however Jay-Z chose to keep them for his upcoming studio album and they were replaced with "No Church in the Wild" and "Made in America." After his collaboration album was released, Jay-Z didn't have plans to start working on a new solo album and went touring instead.

While working on Beyonce's fifth studio album, frequent collaborator Timbaland played him the instrumental for what would become "Picasso Baby." According to Jay-Z that song "built the sound of [the album]." The two had parted ways after they worked on The Blueprint 3, but reunited for MCHG and Timbaland handled most of the production on the album. In an interview with BBC Radio 1, Jay-Z stated that while the two have recorded many songs in the past, it was not until MCHG that they got "the chemistry" to collaborate for a whole project. Producer J-Roc described "Picasso Baby" as "just New York." He told XXL that him and Timbaland "were really just feeling the city, the energy that it gives out" and were inspired by the "numerous different cultures and different dialects or sounds."

Jay-Z contacted GOOD Music producer Hit-Boy in 2012 about working together on his new album. Hit-Boy created the instrumental for "Somewhere in America" which was initially supposed to appear on the debut album of another GOOD Music producer and rapper Travis Scott. While in the studio with Jay-Z, Scott played the instrumental for him and Jay instantly liked it.

The instrumental for "FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt" was started by producer Vinylz who was inspired by a Pimp C speech he found on YouTube. He sampled his voice for the intro and then created the rest of the song in "like five minutes." After fellow producer Boi-1da did some more work on it, it was sent to Rick Ross who intended to use it for his upcoming album. Jay-Z was supposed to add a guest verse to it, but when he heard the instrumental, he wanted the track for his album. Timbaland added additional changes to it before the final version was created for the album.

"Crown" was started by 16-year-old Canadian producer WondaGurl. She had collaborated with Travis Scott on his "Owl Pharaoh" mixtape and went on to produce another track for his upcoming album. Scott liked the instrumental and started to build upon it with Mike Dean. The two gave it to Jay-Z who recorded "Crown" over it.

Guests and production

In late 2011 it was confirmed three songs had been recorded and one of which features Frank Ocean which would end up being "Oceans" the oldest song that made the album. Jay-Z had worked extensively on the album's production with producers such as Swizz Beatz, Timbaland and Pharrell Williams who were also featured in the Samsung commercials. He had also worked on the albums production with Jahlil Beats, Boi-1da, Mike Dean, Kanye West and Mike Will Made It. He had also been seen in the studio with various artists such as Drake, The-Dream, Raekwon, Nas, and Justin Timberlake working on the album. An updated tracklist revealed guest appearances by Justin Timberlake, Frank Ocean, Nas, Pharrell, Swizz Beatz, Rick Ross and Beyoncé Knowles among others.

Release and promotion

On April 11, 2013, Jay-Z would release the first song off the album titled "Open Letter." The song was a response to the critics of his fifth wedding anniversary that took place in Cuba. This was due to the current United States embargo against Cuba which meant they needed a permit to visit the country. The song was produced by Swizz Beatz, and was included on the album as a bonus track. On July 10, 2013, Third Man Records announced on their website that they had entered a deal to release Magna Carta... Holy Grail on vinyl, also confirming that "Open Letter" would be included as a vinyl-only bonus track and that there would be "something [else] very special planned for the vinyl edition", encouraging fans to continue checking the label's website for further details and a formal pre-order announcement for the vinyl edition. However, the 'vinyl-only' appearance of "Open Letter" has been shown to not apply to all market areas as it does appear on some CD releases; Australia and United Kingdom, for example.

On June 16 during the fifth game of the 2013 NBA Finals, Jay-Z was featured in a new commercial by Samsung where he announced that his twelfth studio album would be titled, Magna Carta... Holy Grail and would be released on July 4, 2013. He was seen speaking to producer Rick Rubin in the studio about the album saying, "The album is about, like this duality of how do you navigate through this whole thing, through success, through failures, through all this and remain yourself." The commercial featured producers that are confirmed to be on the album including Timbaland, Swizz Beatz and Pharrell Williams. The album will be available for free download on July 4, 12:01 a.m. EST, to the first one million Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung Galaxy Note II users of a new app. On June 21, 2013, Billboard said that the Samsung deal would not count towards the sales figures used to compile their charts. The album will be released for retail sale three days later on July 7, 2013.

Leading up to the release of the album Jay-Z released the select lyrics to every song off the album daily via the Samsung app that was released on June 23. This included "Holy Grail", "Heaven", "Oceans", "Part II (On the Run)", "BBC", "Jay Z Blue", "Versus", "La Familia", "Tom Ford", "Beach Is Better", "Crown", "Picasso Baby", "F.U.T.W.", "Nickels & Dimes" and "SomewhereInAmerica" in order. On July 3, 2013, the cover art of the album was revealed next to the one of the four surviving copies of album's namesake (the 11th-century English charter) in Salisbury Cathedral, England, and it will remain on display there until the end of July. It was also made available on his website, lifeandtimes.com.

During the 2013 Grammy Awards, Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z performed their hit single "Suit & Tie". Following their appearance on Grammys, rumors of a stadium tour between the artists were raised as a result of Jay-Z's posts on his Life + Times blog; he posted series of venues with the note "#LegendsOfSummer this week". The "Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour" was officially announced on February 22, 2013, when North American dates were revealed. The tour begun on July 14, 2013 in London, England. During October 2013 Jay-Z will be touring Europe on the Magna Carter World Tour. It will begin on October 3 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England and conclude October 29 at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	58/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
The Guardian
The Independent
The Los Angeles Times
Pitchfork Media	5.8/10
Rolling Stone
Spin	5/10
The Telegraph
The Toronto Star
USA Today

Upon its release Magna Carta... Holy Grail received mixed reviews from music critics, who were divided in their opinion about the album: some praised it for its lyricism and production, while others criticized Jay-Z for lack of presence. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 58, based on 37 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Reviewing for USA Today, Steve Jones gave Magna Carta... Holy Grail four out of four stars, saying "The breadth of his subject matter - which also touches on family, loyalty, spirituality and fame - is matched by his lyrical acuity. His perspective is that of someone who has achieved much but hasn't lost sight of what brought him to this point." The New York Daily News gave the album four out of five stars, noting a change in themes from the braggadocio of his last release The Blueprint 3 (2009) to wealth, religion and his paranoia of being a good parent; concluding, "the fact that Jay has allowed more vulnerability and rumination to balance out his continuing wit and fun means he may be well on his way to becoming his genre's answer to the great bard." In contrast, Andy Gill for The Independent found Jay-Z's discussion of his wealth and marriage to Beyoncé to be repetitive of his older work; however, he praised the production and the more revealing tracks, naming "Jay-Z Blue" and "Nickels & Dimes" as highlights, giving it three out of five stars. The Guardian summarised that Timbaland's production in the early tracks was the main draw of the album, but was in agreement with Gill of The Independent in that "Jay-Z Blue" and "Nickles and Dimes" excelled past this. Ben Rayner of The Toronto Star described the album as "Jay-Z does Jay-Z" for its thematic resonance with his previous work, and although he felt the album did not live up to its "immodest title", he concluded that the "16 cuts generally deliver enough oomph and swagger to get your head nodding." Helen Brown of The Telegraph found the album easy to listen to when compared to recent rap releases like Kanye West's Yeezus (2013), praising the features of Beyoncé and Frank Ocean and concluding that it was enjoyable. The Los Angeles Times found the production to be "sonically-stunning" and the sampling efficacious, however, their review maligned Jay-Z's choice of album title and reference of famous figures, such as Pablo Picasso and Jean-Michel Basquiat, as having little symbolism and therefore elusive meaning. In a very positive review, Dan Rys of XXL praised the "sheer magnitude" of the album, and thought it won over Yeezus as the "cultural high water mark of the summer." MCHG got the editor's pick at DJ Booth, who felt "it was clearly made by a man with nothing left to prove."

In a more mixed review, The New York Times found Magna Carta... Holy Grail to be boastful but also ambivalent, seeing the reflective tone as a continuance from his collaborative effort with Kanye West on Watch the Throne (2011). Their review also referred to the album having "ups and downs", particularly praising the songs that ponder religion, superstition and philanthropy, but seeing others as an "awkward mixture of Jay-Z's reflexes and his determination to sidestep them". Jesse Cataldo of Slant insisted that Jay-Z's last truly great effort was The Black Album (2003) and subsequent releases, including Magna Carta... Holy Grail were not as good. Referring to the discussion of opulence and wealth throughout, Cataldo wrote that "Stately pride, bogus reflectiveness, and arrogant flippancy are the only feelings available to Jay-Z circa 2013, which means he can brook no admissions of weakness or personal deficiency", giving the album two out of five stars. Rolling Stone's Simon Vozick commented that "Jay often sounds like he's trying to convince himself that he should still be excited about making music," but praised "Jay-Z Blue" as "a vivid, powerful moment that reminds you what he can do when he really cares."

Commercial performance

Magna Carta... Holy Grail debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 528,000 copies in its first week, bypassing its predicted debut in the range of 350,000 to 400,000. The album also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 30,000 units in its first week. It is Jay-Z's third straight number one album in Canada. The album debuted at number one on the UK Album Chart, Jay-Z's first UK number one album. In its second week the album sold 129,000 more copies in the United States. Despite the 76% drop in sales, Magna Carta... Holy Grail retained its No. 1 position on the Billboard 200, becoming the first rap album to spend two consecutive weeks on top since Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV (2011). In its third week the album would drop down to number 2, selling 77,000 copies, bringing total sales to 733,000 copies.

At the time of its release, the album had the second-biggest sales week for 2013, behind Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience. Magna Carta... Holy Grail's debut marked the first time in Billboard's history when four different rap albums have consecutively spent weeks at number one, after Kanye West's Yeezus, Wale's The Gifted and J. Cole's Born Sinner. Magna Carta... Holy Grail also became Jay-Z's 13th studio album in a row to top the Billboard 200, extending his record for the most chart-toppers by a solo act in Billboard's history.

Track listing

On June 22, Jay-Z held a viral scavenger hunt around Brooklyn, New York as part of his "#NEWRULES" venture with Samsung. The 100 winners of the hunt were given a binder that revealed the tracklist. However, the official final tracklist would be revealed by the iTunes Store and the credits revealed by Timbaland.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Holy Grail" (featuring Justin Timberlake)	Justin Timberlake Shawn Carter Terius "The-Dream" Nash Timothy Mosley Jerome Harmon Ernest Wilson Kurt Cobain Dave Grohl Krist Novoselic	The-Dream Timbaland Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon No ID[a]	5:38
2.	"Picasso Baby"	S. Carter T. Mosley J. Harmon Adrian Younge	Timbaland J-Roc	4:05
3.	"Tom Ford"	S. Carter T. Mosley J. Harmon	Timbaland J-Roc	3:09
4.	"FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt" (featuring Rick Ross)	S. Carter Matthew Samuels Anderson Hernandez William Roberts	Boi-1da Vinylz Timbaland[a] J-Roc[a]	4:03
5.	"Oceans" (featuring Frank Ocean)	S. Carter Christopher Breaux Pharrell Williams	Pharrell Williams Timbaland[a]	3:58
6.	"F.U.T.W."	S. Carter T. Mosley J. Harmon	Timbaland J-Roc	4:02
7.	"Somewhereinamerica"	S. Carter Chauncey Hollis Darhyl Camper, Jr. Michael Dean	Hit-Boy Darhyl "Hey DJ" Camper Mike Dean	2:28
8.	"Crown"	S. Carter J. Webster M. Dean K. Bennett Miguel Collins B. Dixon	Travis Scott Dean WondaGurl[c]	4:33
9.	"Heaven"	S. Carter T. Nash J. Timberlake T. Mosley J. Harmon William Berry Peter Buck Mike Mills Michael Stipe A. Younge	Timbaland J-Roc	4:03
10.	"Versus"	S. Carter T. Mosley Kasseem Dean J. Harmon Jonathan Davis Frederick Hubbard Ali Shaheed Muhammad Malik Taylor	Timbaland Swizz Beatz	0:51
11.	"Part II (On the Run)" (featuring Beyoncé)	S. Carter James Fauntleroy II T. Mosley J. Harmon	Timbaland J-Roc	5:33
12.	"Beach Is Better"	S. Carter Michael Williams Marquel Middlebrooks	Mike Will Made It Marz[b]	0:55
13.	"BBC"	S. Carter P. Williams Nasir Jones T. Mosley J. Timberlake K. Dean	Williams	3:12
14.	"JAY Z Blue"	S. Carter T. Mosley J. Harmon J. Timberlake Carlos Broady Sean Combs Darryl McDaniels Nashiem Myrick Christopher Wallace	Timbaland J-Roc Timberlake[a]	3:50
15.	"La Familia"	S. Carter T. Mosley J. Harmon	Timbaland J-Roc	3:33
16.	"Nickels and Dimes"	S. Carter Kyambo Joshua M. Dean Sumach Valentine	Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshua Dean[a]	5:03

Bonus track

No.	Title	Producer(s)	Length
17.	"Open Letter"	Timbaland Swizz Beatz	2:41

Notes

• ^{^a} signifies an additional producer.
• ^{^b} signifies a co-producer.
• ^{^c} signifies an additional programmer.
• "Somewhereinamerica" is alternatively spelled as "Somewhere in America" in some versions of the album.
• "Holy Grail" features additional vocals by The-Dream.
• "Picasso Baby" features additional vocals by The-Dream and Zofia Borucka Moreno.
• "Tom Ford" features additional vocals by Beyoncé Knowles who is credited as "Third Ward Trill".
• "Crown" features additional vocals by Travis Scott.
• "Heaven" features additional vocals by Justin Timberlake.
• "BBC" features additional vocals by Nas, Pharrell, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Swizz Beatz and Beyoncé Knowles who is credited as "Third Ward Trill".
• "Jay Z Blue" features additional vocals by Taffy.
• "Nickels and Dimes" features uncredited vocals by Miguel.

Samples

• "Holy Grail" contains elements of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana.
• "Picasso Baby" contains a sample of "Sirens" by Adrian Younge.
• "Tom Ford" contains elements of "Bad Girls" by M.I.A.
• "Somewhereinamerica" embodies portions of "Gangster of Love (Part 1)" written by Johnny Guitar Watson.
• "Crown" contains a sample of "Solid As A Rock" performed by Sizzla.
• "Heaven" contains a sample of "Reverie" by Adrian Younge, and lyrically samples "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M.
• "Versus" embodies portions of A Tribe Called Quest's "Sucka Nigga".
• "Part II (On the Run)" contains a sample of "Believe in Me" by One Way.
• "BBC" lyrically samples "Feel So Good" by Mase.
• "Jay Z Blue" contains samples from "My Downfall" by The Notorious B.I.G. and a monologue by Faye Dunaway in the 1981 film Mommie Dearest.
• "Nickels and Dimes" contains a sample of "Nikels and Dimes" performed by Gonjasufi.

Charts

Chart (2013)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)	2
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)	14
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)	7
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)	31
Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)	1
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)	2
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)	7
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)	9
French Albums (SNEP)	12
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)	17
Irish Albums (IRMA)	2
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	2
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)	2
Polish Albums (OLiS)	28
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)	1
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	40
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)	59
UK Albums (Official Charts Company)	1
US Billboard 200	1
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)	1
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)	1

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)	Platinum	1,000,000^
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Region	Date	Format	Label	Edition
Worldwide	July 4, 2013	Digital download (via JAY Z Magna Carta Samsung app)	Roc Nation, Roc-A-Fella, Universal	Standard
Australia	July 8, 2013	Digital download
		CD		Bonus track
Germany		Digital download, CD		Standard
United Kingdom		Digital download	Virgin EMI
Canada	July 9, 2013	Digital download, CD	Roc Nation, Roc-A-Fella, Universal
United States		Digital download, CD
United Kingdom	July 22, 2013	CD	Roc Nation, Roc-A-Fella, Virgin EMI	Bonus track
Canada	July 23, 2013	CD	Roc Nation, Roc-A-Fella, Universal	Standard
United States	TBA	Vinyl	Third Man	Bonus track

Personnel

Credits for Magna Carta...Holy Grail adapted from Allmusic.

• K. Bennett – Composer
• Bill Berry – Composer
• Beyoncé – Featured Artist, Vocals
• Boi-1da – Producer
• Christopher Breaux – Composer
• C. Broady – Composer
• Peter Buck – Composer
• Darhyl "DJ" Camper Jr. – Composer, Producer
• Shawn Carter – Composer, Executive Producer
• Kurt Cobain – Composer
• Miguel Collins – Composer
• Sean "Puffy" Combs – Composer
• J. Davis – Composer
• Kasseem Dean – Composer
• Mike Dean – Additional Production, Composer, Mixing, Producer
• Demacio "Demo" Castellon – Engineer, Mixing
• The-Dream – Composer, Producer, Vocals
• Dominique Dunn – A&R
• James Fauntleroy – Composer
• Chris Geringer – Mastering
• Chris Godbey – Engineer
• Dave Grohl – Composer
• Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon – Additional Production, Producer
• Anderson Hernandez – Composer
• Hit-Boy – Producer
• C. Hollis – Composer
• Freddie Hubbard – Composer
• Ken "Duro" Ifill – Mixing
• J. Harmon – Composer
• Jaycen Joshua – Mixing
• Jay-Z – Primary Artist
• Nasir Jones – Composer
• Kyambo Joshua – Composer
• Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshua – Producer
• Ryan Kaul – Mixing Assistant
• Johnathan Lee – Assistant Engineer
• Ari Marcopoulos – Photography
• Marz – Producer
• Darryl McDaniels – Composer
• M. Middlebrooks – Composer
• M. Mills – Composer
• Zeke Mishanec – Assistant Engineer
• Zofia Borucka Moreno – Vocals
• Tim Mosley – Composer
• N. Myrick – Composer
• Nas – Vocals
• No ID – Additional Production
• Krist Novoselic – Composer
• Frank Ocean – Featured Artist
• Ebony "Wondagurl" Oshunrinde – Additional Production
• Willo Perron – Creative Director
• Ramon Rivas – Assistant Engineer, Engineer
• W. Roberts – Composer
• Brian Roettinger – Art Direction
• Rick Ross – Featured Artist
• Lenny S. – A&R
• M. Samuels – Composer
• Travis Scott – Producer, Vocals
• Michael Stipe – Composer
• Swizz Beatz – Producer, Vocals
• Taffy – Vocals
• Malik Taylor – Composer
• Timbaland – Additional Production, Producer, Vocals
• Justin Timberlake – Additional Production, Composer, Featured Artist, Vocals
• Sumach Valentine – Composer
• Vinylz – Producer
• C. Wallace – Composer
• Matt Weber – Assistant Engineer
• Eric Weissman – Sample Clearance
• Mike Will – Composer, Producer
• Pharrell Williams – Composer, Producer, Vocals
• Ernest Wilson – Composer
• Jordan "DJ Swivel" Young – Editing, Engineer
• Adrian Younge – Composer