1. Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake)
1. Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake)
1. Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake)
1. Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake)
Jay-Z officially dropped his 12th album, Magna Carta Holy Grail last week Tuesday (July 9th), but Samsung Mobile let some fans get it a couple of days before that. Jay sold a million digital copies to Samsung, who bought it with the intention of giving it out to Jay-Z fans who used some specific Samsung Mobile phones (Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, an Note 2). So, automatically, Jay went platinum before his album even dropped. Some rappers weren't too happy with this move, and LL Cool J is one of them. Check out LL's indirect message to Jay-Z during his recent interview with Revolt TV-
"I think that for me as an artist, I still want to be able to touch the people individually. It still matters to me that people individually went
out and bought my record. Although I do think a million records sold is a
million records sold, there’s no question about that. You can’t argue
with math. It is what it is and that’s truth. For me, I like to touch
the people directly. I like to know that a million people went out and
bought my album. Not that I sold a million records to a company. That’s
different…But that being said, I think it’s definitely the right move
for the RIAA. I agree with that move. It’s not anything different. I
mean, if Wal-Mart buys a million records, they bought it. I mean the
difference is…If I go sell five million records to Bill Gates or if I
sell 10 million records to Bill Gates, I guess I’m diamond. I may not
touch 10 million people, but I’m diamond. Numbers are numbers, but I
think that in the numbers is truth. But in terms of touching the people
it’s a little different.”
Mehn! It is all about Jay-Z right now. The hype is serious. I have had friends that I know don't listen to Rap music ask me for the Magna Carta album. I'm not saying the album didn't match the hype, it is a good album, but the hype for it is crazy right now. It already sold a million digital copies (thanks to Samsung Mobile for the purchase, Jay already got his Platinum Plaque from R.I.A.A), but the buzz for the physical copies (which hits stores yesterday) is also crazy. Hits Daily Double just projected, based on first day sales that Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail album is on its way to selling between 475-525k first week. Whoa! Add that to the million copies already sold, and you have 1.5 million copies sold in 1 week. Congrats to Jay-Z.
On this album, Jay-Z does what he knows how to do best- brag about his wealth, speak a little about his crack-cocaine hustling days, and about the fact that he bagged the most beautiful female musician on the scene. If you are a Jay-Z fan, you will definitely love this album, cos Jay has grown, and his businesses have changed, so he has more to talk about. If you are just a hip hop lover, and not necessarily a Jay fan, you might not like Jay's lazy flows on some songs off the album, but the production is on-point, and Jay rides the beat well on majority of the songs, so you would still like the album. At least, It is a better put together album than 85% of the Hip Hop albums that has dropped in the last 2 years or so.
The album starts off with Justin Timberlake singing on Holy Grail, the first track on the album. Timberlake's singing goes a little into the second minute before Jay-Z's voice can be heard. I think this is a cool way to get all demographics and people with different taste in music to be interested in the album. After this track, Jay comes with Picasso Baby, the hardest song on the album; A hard hitting Timbaland beat, with a switch of beat mid-way through the track. This is vintage Jay-Z, and he is at his best here; especially on the second half of the song. I think the second half of the song will give any appreciator of hiphop music the chills. Tom Ford is just a fun song, and is perfect for a track 3. After that comes a classic collaboration between Jay and Rick Ross- FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt. With this song (FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt), you know the chemistry with these two has grwon over the years, to a very comfortable place. It's great to hear Jay on a southern beat with Rick Ross, and see him deliver so well.Between beauty and beast, I walk the line Johnny Cash, I'm a real G I cut my self today to see if I still bleed Success is so sublime Gotta do that time to time so I don't lose my mind Something 'bout the struggle so divine This sort of love is hard to define
People shouldn't confuse the La Familia song as a full fledge diss track towards lil Wayne; it is just Jay having fun on a southern sounding Timberland beat. He just threw a couple of shots Wayne's way to check him...that's all. Unfortunately, the song with Nas, Pharrell, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, and Beyonce was a disappointment. I guess there were too many cooks in the kitchen. The Pharrell beat is not something you would want to hear Nas on. And Beyonce and Justin Timberlake are hardly on the song. Good album overall, but not a classic like BP1, and not as good as BP3. Jay gets motivational on must of the songs, and even kicks some knowledge on "Heaven." I'd give Magna Carta Holy Grail a 4 out of 5 in ratings.
"In the barber shop listening to jays new album....I can't front... I
still like hearing him pop shit cause I know he's telling the
truth...proud to be be a part of that..#bittersweet," Dash wrote on
Instagram July 5. (Dame Dash's Instagram)
“Definitely his peoples had reached out to me and
said that he wanted to connect with me on a track. My thing was it’s about time. We both never had an opportunity to
really do that before, so I knew in my heart it was time to make that
kind of move happen…He embraced me. He gave me nothing but love. We
laughed. We talked. We talked about real shit. We talked about
parenthood. We talked about life.”
"By now, many of us in the music business, as well as Jay-Z fans, know that Samsung has purchased one million "Magna Carta Holy Grail" digital albums to be given away to the phone maker's customers. It is a novel and creative marketing move and it has rightly stimulated a healthy conversation about the sale's meaning and implications for the modern music business. For us, the move prompted a re-examination of our historic Gold & Platinum (G&P) Program award rules. As we dug through the records of audits, re-reviewed rules and consulted with our auditing firm of more than thirty years, Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, we discovered one rule disparity that no longer makes sense. We think it's time for the RIAA - and Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman - to align our digital song and album certification requirements. That's why today we are officially updating this rule in our G&P Program requirements. Going forward, sales of albums in digital format will become eligible on the release date, while sales of albums in physical format will still become eligible for certification 30 days after the release date. Not only do we believe it's sensible and logical to align digital album rules with those we have maintained for digital singles since the program's inception, we also consider today's move in line with our larger efforts to modernize the G&P Program to reflect the new music marketplace. In May we announced the integration of on-demand streams to the program to more broadly recognize online demand for songs." (RIAA)
Jay-Z has been releasing lyrics from the songs on his upcoming album, Magna Carter Holy Grail for the last couple of days. The album is going to be his 12th studio album, and it is set to drop on July 4th (America's Independence day). He recently let fans unto the lyrics for La Familia, one of the songs on the album, and it had this lines- “Wanna kidnap wifey / Good luck with that bruh /
You must gonna hide your whole family / What you think we wearing black
for / Ready for that war / Ready for that war ready / You ain't ready,
yo, you radio,"
Yup! That's right. Some weeks back, the internet was buzzing about a 20 million dollar deal Jay-Z was supposedly inking with Samsung Mobile. People knew there was a deal in the works, but no one knew the full details of the deal. But, word is out. Jay-Z is about to drop his 12th album, Magna Carta Holy Grail on July 4th, but he is not doing it the conventional way. Samsung has already bought the first million copies of the album, and they will give it out free to the first one million people that download the album App on google plus (Android market), through some selected Samsung smartphone models.
Below is a 3 minute Samsung commercial, which shows Jay-Z in the studio with Pharrell, Rick Rubin, Timbaland, and Swizz Beatz...some of the best music producers in the game. The commercial aired during last night's NBA Finals Game 5 (Miami Heats vs. San Antonio Spurs). Jay has been known to complete albums in weeks, and with these producers around him, he can do no wrong with the album's production. Magna Carta Holy Grail will surely be a banger.