We learned through Jay-Z's Twitter spree that the Frank Ocean-featured "Oceans" song was actually two years old. Now, in an upcoming interview from Hov and BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe, we learn that "Holy Grail" is also an older track, and that Jay-Z and Kanye West argued over the two tracks, as to whose album they should live on.
While the two rappers were recording their joint album, Watch The Throne, in August of 2011, they decided that following the collaborative effort, they'd each work on their respective solo projects. So, with the album wrapping up, Hov recorded his intro track, "Holy Grail," and "Oceans."
"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 recalled during the interview. "Soon as I thought we had wrapped up 'Watch The Throne', I made two records - I had 'Holy Grail' and 'Oceans'."
Hov continued, "[There were] no lyrics on 'Holy Grail' and I recorded 'Oceans' and I played those records for Kanye. And 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."
The argument went on for four days, however, it didn't turn nasty. As Jay described it, "four days, four days literally arguing... not like fighting. Well, there was some pushing at one point but not between us, just everyone else got a little excited."
Obviously Hov won the argument and the songs for himself, as both appear on his platinum-selling new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail.
[Edit: You can now listen to the first part of Jay-Z's interview with Zane Lowe, where he discusses the argument, below.]