Jay-Z just announced his upcoming album, Magna Carta Holy Grail. The album will be dropping July 4. Hov made the announcement during a commercial for Samsung during halftime of Game 5 of the NBA Finals. He is shown in the studio with a cavalcade of hip-hop production luminaries—including Rick Rubin, Timbaland, Pharrell, and Swizz Beatz—working on the new album.
The album will be released first to Samsung Galaxy users who download a customized mobile app. Only the first million downloaders gain access to the album for free on July 4. The album will then be released to the general public three days later. More information about the app is available here.
What's striking about the ad is that it's a rare look at Jay-Z as a communicator in the studio as he talks to the producers and discusses his vision. In the video Jay describes the album saying, "The album is about like this duality. How do you navigate your way through this whole thing—like success, through failures, through all this—and remain yourself?"
Check out the press release below and let the speculation regarding Hov's fifteenth studio album begin.
UPDATE: Details of Samsung's deal with Hov have emerged. It appears that Samsung purchased one million copies of Magna Carta Holy Grail at $5 a copy. This nets Hov $5 million dollars in sales before the album even reaches retailers. As of now, Nielsen SoundScan has not commented on whether it will count these purchases into the sales tallies of the album.
