“Holy Grail,” the opening salvo of Jay-Z’s 2013 album Magna Carta Holy Grail, was always an ostentatious affair. Justin Timberlake sings what seems to be a sexual innuendo where a reproductive body part is compared to a “holy grail.” Jay-Z delivers part of Nirvana’s “Smell Like Teen Spirit” in a very off-key and monotone voice. The best part of the song is Jay trying to convince listeners that his then-toddler, Blue, demanded that he “remind you niggas / Fuck that shit y’all talking ’bout, I’m the nigga.”
“This was the map for the album,” Jay-Z told Zane Lowe in 2013. “It’s why I couldn’t give it up for the [Watch The] Throne album. It fit The Throne thematically. I was like, ‘I can’t, man. This is the centerpiece to my next.’ I said, ‘There’s records like “Paris” and “Otis,” and this record is going to get lost on this album.”
Over the weekend, during an songwriting battle on Instagram Live, The-Dream shared the original demo of the song — with himself singing Timberlake’s chorus. Credited as a writer and producer on the original song, The-Dream’s version is far more captivating than what fans originally received. His voice slathered in AutoTune and reverb sells the drama and inherent ridiculousness of a song that’s essentially the plot of The Da Vinci Code, but slightly more horny. “I wasn’t tight – much respect to @jtimberlake,” The Dream told Tidal on Twitter. “I wasn’t tight at all. However, I did feel that from the pain and what it meant for me.. to voice that and to sing that.. it just meant something.”
Response to the song was so overwhelming the demo is now streaming on Tidal.