Timbaland Calls 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' the 'Best Jay-Z Album'
Timbaland unlocks the mystery behind Magna Carta Holy Grail. On the eve of the album’s limited release, the super-producer opens up to Revolt TV about working on Jay-Z’s album and his desire to produce Kanye West’s next project.
He reveals for the first time that he and Jay did not speak for a while. “Me and Jay fell out,” says Timbo, who explains it was over “petty” and personal stuff unrelated to the industry. But Timbo admits that he was wrong.
Before he started working on MCHG, he was working on Beyoncé’s album and did seven tracks for that.
He played Jay one beat that he loved and before they knew it, they were working on an album. “We didn’t plan it, it just happened. The energy was so great. It was two friends reuniting.”
Timbaland produced the majority of tracks, while Pharrell, Boi-1da, The-Dream, Mike WiLL Made It, and Travi$ Scott also made contributions.
The old Timbaland wouldn’t have wanted to share production credits, but the new Tim was able to put his ego aside. “Whatever’s gonna better the project, let’s do.”
He proclaimed, “This is the best Jay-Z album thus far… I told [Jay-Z], all The Blueprint albums, those were good, but this is your first big album for the new millennium.”
The first song they recorded was “Picasso” followed by “Holy Grail” and “Tom Ford,” which he describes as “lean music.”
“This is hip-hop at its finest,” says Timbo. “It’s gonna change hip-hop … Ya’ll gonna get in your car and be like, ‘This is a good ass album.'”
He loves Kanye West’s Yeezus (“What he just did was Rage Against the Machine in a black culture way”), but would love it even more if he could produce his next album.
“I think the beauty would be for me and him to do the album,” says Tim. “He should just concentrate on rapping and I just direct certain sounds and what to do. I keep it the same, but I’ma bring that bitch home.”
During the lengthy interview, he also says that was not offended when Kanye dissed Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie” and that he thinks Justin will sell 2 million copies of his next album, due September 30.
He gave J. Cole his stamp of approval. “J. Cole’s good, but you can’t listen to J. Cole like you listen to Kanye. J. Cole’s the next one in line, he’s great!”
And just when you think he’s said it all, he reveals that he was addicted to drugs. “One time in my career, I was addicted to Oxycontin. I was popping pills like that and God got his hands on me. My friends who work for me wrote me a letter, they came to me, and said, ‘Yo man, you need help.’ … I’m like, ‘Perfect. You really down for Tim,’ and I stopped just like that.”
Watch the full interview below.