The-Dream showed up on the writing credits for Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail, on both the Justin Timberlake-assisted "Holy Grail," as well as "Heaven", but his contributions have been less recognized as he has not been a visble part of the promotion for the album. The Radio Killa revealed in an interview with Revolt that he played an integral role in the final product, as well as explaining that the bulk of the record was completed in 2 weeks.
Dream spoke of how the opening track, and lead single to the album actually dated back to the Watch The Throne sessions, and that it actually pre-dated his contribution to that project, "No Church In The Wild". "'Holy Grail,' actually, that record was the first record actually done for this album. I did it sometime between—actually it was [while] finishing Watch The Throne. 'No Church [In The Wild]' hadn't been done yet. 'Otis' hadn't been done. But they knew which records were [making the album]."
The R&B singer approached Jay with the idea for "Holy Grail" before WTT was even conceptualized. "I remember hittin' [Jay-Z], lettin' him know that I wanted to start on his album, that I had an idea." "I sent him 'Holy Grail,'" noted the Radio Killa founder. "I just felt like it was going into that [Leonardo] Davinci place, and so I wanted to write that record." To The-Dream, ironically, the 2013 record sealed the fate of the joint they would later record in New York City's Mercer Hotel for Watch The Throne. "I don't even know if 'No Church In The Wild' is even done without 'Holy Grail' initiating [its creation]."
Rick Rubin was included in the promotion for MCHG, despite having no hand in its creation, while Dream felt he had the opposite representation, as he contributed heavily but was not a visible figure in the album's ads. "The only place I wasn't, was probably in that fuckin' [Samsung] commercial." he said.
Dream spoke of being brought back on for the record after working with Beyonce. "We wasn't even there to be workin' with Jay; we was there fuckin' with [Beyonce]. He was there, just chillin'. He heard that one fuckin' record like, 'Oh shit? Nigga, let's go.' And the shit took off."
The Radio Killa also revealed the writing and recording process of the album to be shorter than many would expect. "The significant part of this album, the body: two weeks," he declared.
Watch the full interview below.
