Jay-Z is slated to drop his latest offering Magna Carta Holy Grail in about one week, give or take a couple days. Judging from the promotional video, it looks like Jay has assembled a Diamond Studded production crew that reads like the Black Album 2 has come to be in the form of #MAGNACARTA.
In the video Jay seems to be working the room with a series of excerpts that puts me in the mind of a coach pumping his team up for the championship game. Pharrell, Rick Ruben, Timbaland and SwizzBeats are all accounted for and the beats (even the small snippets) seem to be monstrous.
#MAGNACARTA is also somewhat of a landmark with regards to the deal that was worked out with Samsung. On Monday June 24th Samsung will make an app available to Galaxy owners. This app will allow 1 million Samsung Galaxy owners to have exclusive download access to Magna Carta Holy Grail on July 4th @ 12:01am. That’s a full 72 hours prior to the public release. #NEWRULES
Word has it that Soundscan is going nuts because of Jay-Zs #NEWRULES #MAGNACARTA campaign has literally changed the rules of engagement for major Rap music release. In that regard, JAY-Z tweeted “If 1 Million records gets SOLD and billboard doesnt report it, did it happen? Ha. #newrules #magnacartaholygrail Platinum!!! VII IV XIII.”
Lets see the “fly on the wall” styled promotional video for a bit more about the vibe of the release.
Tracklist Scavenger Hunt – #NEWRULES
This weekend Jay-Zs publicist made a game of tweeting hints about the tracklist. Ultimately the hints led the the smartest scavenger hunters to random locations in where Jay-Zs publicist would be waiting with 15 books to give away. The books, heavily redacted, contained the song titles for the forthcoming Magna Carta Holy Grail.
1. Picasso Baby
2. Heaven
3. Versus
4. Tom Ford
5. Beach Is Better
6. FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt
7. Oceans
8. F.U.T.W.
09. Part II (On The Run)
10. BBC
11. La Familia
12. Jay-Z Blue
13. Nickles & Dimes
14. Holy Grail (Bonus Track)
15. Open Letter (Bonus Track)