The Jay-Z Magna Carta Holy Grail promotion machine trundles on this week as the Brooklyn born MC speaks with BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe exclusively in a four part interview. Kicking off today in Abbey Road Studios, Hov talks to Lowe about the making of the new album, dissecting individual tracks and discussing fall outs with Timbaland and Kanye West.
The beef with West was over whether two tracks “Holy Grail” and “Oceans” would appear on 2011’s collaboration Watch The Throne. “We had this whole plan when me and Kanye did [the] Watch The Throne album that we would go right into our solos after that,” Jay-Z explained. “He was like, 'No those have to go on Watch The Throne,' so we spent four days arguing about those records and I was explaining to him why it wasn't right for this project and I had a whole idea for making this album called 'Magna Carta'... 'Holy Grail' [part of] the name came after." Thankfully, Jay-Z got his way, fisty cuffs were averted, and Kanye’s pout receded.
Clearly in reflective mood, the rapper admits that ego, pride and overzealous entourages are often guilty of embellishing the feuds that litter the genre. Jay-Z claims that his seeming aloofness to getting into it with fellow rappers is not arrogance, but an admission that "I just don't want to argue with you about stupid shit."
To view part one of the BBC interview, check out the clip below.