Finally, after two years of quiet, Jack White’s Third Man Records has unveiled details surrounding the long-overdue vinyl release of Jay Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail.
The album was originally released on July 4, 2013, by Roc-A-Fella, and had been slated for its Third Man treatment within “coming weeks” for eager listeners. (The Jay-Z-curated soundtrack for The Great Gatsby had already been released on vinyl by Third Man.) Though the vinyl release was postponed, Jay Z’s twelfth studio album reached double-platinum-selling status, and included features from artists such as: Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Rick Ross, Frank Ocean and production from the likes of Timbaland, Hit-Boy and Pharrell Williams.
As expected, the Third Man box-set release of Magna Carta Holy Grail is riddled with surprises. The set includes eight 7″ records which are held in a custom cloth binder, and includes “scratch off” hidden lyrics and photos, a “mirror page” to decipher “reverse-printed” lyrics and design by the album’s original cover artist Brian Roettinger. The cryptic theme of the set is described by Third Man as being reflective of “redacted government documents.”
The Third Man Records Magna Carter Holy Grail box set will be a limited issue “1 of 1000” and will be made available March 20 through TMR and Roc Nation.
Watch the box set teaser below: