Jay-Z Recalls Kanye West Argument

During sessions for 'Magna Carta... Holy Grail'

Jay-Z has revealed the extent to which the making of 'Magna Carta… Holy Grail' put a strain on his friendship with Kanye West.

Two of the biggest names in hip hop, Jay-Z and Kanye West are both friends and rivals. Pushing each other to new heights, joint album 'Watch The Throne' has been followed by solo endeavours.

However the process has not been without strain. Jay-Z released new album 'Magna Carta… Holy Grail' last week, and revealed that the making of the record put strain on his friendship with Kanye West. Speaking to Radio 1 host Zane Lowe, the rapper said: "We had this whole plan when me and Kanye did 'Watch The Throne' album, that we would go right into our solos after that. Soon as I thought we had wrapped up 'Watch The Throne' I made two records, I had 'Holy Grail' and 'Oceans', 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' the name came after. Four days, four day’s literally arguing four days, not like fighting, well there was some pushing at one point but not between us, just everyone else got a little excited."

Elsewhere, Jay-Z also revealed why his partnership with Timbaland came to an end after the release of 'The Blueprint 3'. "The fall out happened at the end of that album ('The Blueprint 3'), it really happened, the way the album happened, a couple of songs were getting leaked that were his songs and that whole thing just ruined the whole process and I wanted him and Kanye to produce and Kanye who was the Executive Producer of 'The Blueprint 3' was like ‘Yo, let's get Tim, lets bring Tim in’ and we were all inviting to him and he just wasn’t accepting of the process and it seemed like it was more about him than the actual album".

"When you’re going and making an album you have to put all egos aside, I’m putting egos aside, everyone has to put egos aside for the sake of the project and he wasn’t accepting of that thing and that was almost like the last straw type of thing. So we just went our separate ways and after those concerts when he came back I’d seen a new Timbaland he has this maturity and this growth and I was like 'Oh okay, this is going to work out'."

Headlining Wireless at the weekend, Jay-Z was clearly in the mood for celebration. 'Magna Carta… Holy Grail' hit the top spot, becoming the rapper's sole UK number one album to date.

Get the best of Clash on your iPhone – download the app here

-
Join the Clash mailing list for up to the minute music, fashion and film news.