Origins: The Samples From Jay-Z's "Magna Carta Holy Grail"

Coming up with the right supporting beats and melody in a hip-hop track can be extremely challenging. Not to mention the time and effort it takes to make an original beat. In this day and age, artists often borrow music from other songs and build off it, to create a new and unique beat-- obviously, this is called sampling. Out of the 16 tracks put out on Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail, 12 of them were sampled with other songs and beats.

Curious to know where Jay-Z gets his inspiration? There are a wide range of tastes found on Magna Carta-- from Nirvana, to M.I.A., to classic Biggie, to indie artist Gonjasufi.

Check out our list of sampled tracks from his latest album along with the original song the music was borrowed from.

"Nickels and Dimes" by Gonjasufi was used in the track of the same title on MCHG

For "Jay Z Blue",  producers Timbaland, J_Roc and Justin Timberlake sampled from Notorious BIG's "My Downfall"

Mase's "Feel So Good" is featured on "BBC"

In "Part II On the Run", Timbaland and J-Roc sampled from the R&B/Funk band One Way which formed in 1979

Timbaland and Swizz Beatz use the beat behind "Sucka Nigga" from A Tribe Called Quest for "Versus"

In "Heaven", Timbaland and J-Roc use samples from R.E.M's "Losing My Religion" & beats from Adrian Younge's "Reverie"

"Crown" sampled from Sizzla's "Solid as a Rock"

In "Somewhere In America", producers Hitboy, Darhyl "Hey DJ" Camper and Mike Dean used samples from "Gangster of Love" by Johnny Guitar Watson

For "F.U.T.W", Timbaland and J-Roc used vocal samples from the 1973 funk/soul band Amnesty as well as Notorious B.I.G's "Long Kiss Goodnight"

For "Tom Ford", producers Timbaland and J-Roc played with the line from M.I.A's "Bad Girls"

"Picasso Baby" sampled from Adrian Younge's "Sirens" 

"Holy Grail" contains samples from Nirvana's - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"