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JAY-Z is used to curating epic moments during the NBA Finals. Nine years ago, the Roc Nation founder took advantage of the hype surrounding the Miami Heat vs San Antonio Spurs to drop an ad that featured an announcement for his Magna Carta... Holy Grail album.
On June 16, 2013, JAY-Z established new rules for dropping an album after he released a three-minute Samsung ad that revealed the title of his 12th studio album. The ad put viewers in the studio with Hov as he spoke with iconic producer Rick Rubin about the album. He also connected with Swizz Beatz, Pharrell Williams and Timbaland as they cooked up the album's hottest tracks like "Holy Grail" featuring Justin Timberlake, "Picasso Baby," "BBC" and "Tom Ford."
“We don’t have any rules," JAY-Z said in the ad. "Everyone’s trying to figure it out. That's why the Internet is like the wild West... the Wild, Wild West. We need to write the new rules.”
As soon as the commercial aired, the details about JAY-Z's groundbreaking deal with Samsung spread throughout the Internet like wild fire. Roc Nation signed a $20 million-dollar deal with Samsung. As a part of that deal, Samsung paid $5 million to giveaway 1 million copies of Magna Carta... Holy Grail exclusively to users of the mobile company's Galaxy S III, Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note II.
The album dropped on the phones on July 4, which was several days before the album's public release. Users were able to download the 16-track album for free from an app in the Google Play store. On the day in question, numerous people had trouble accessing their downloads on the phones which had fans upset. Hov kept it real about how he felt about the album's release in an interview with The Breakfast Club.
"The thing that happened with Samsung is a real thing," JAY-Z explained. "It was 20 million hits to the app. I'm not saying 20 million people hit the app but you know we went over a million, like a million 3... and it broke. No one is expecting this. There's no way in the world for you to calculate 20 million hits."
"For me, that's not cool," he added. "That's a loss and that has to get better. But again, someone else is going to figure it out. The next person is going to now know how to go into it better, which is cool. That's my job. I took the hit for that."
His plan for Magna Carta... Holy Grail didn't go exactly as planned, but it did cause a notable shift in the music industry. For example, the RIAA had to update its rules in order to give the New York native's gold and platinum certifications sooner than its previous 30-day waiting period after he instantly sold a million records thanks to the Samsung deal.
JAY-Z was right about one thing though -- other rappers did figure it out. He also opened the door for a slew of artists like Drake, Kanye West, Future and others to drop music exclusively through various avenues like TV ads, specific streaming services and mobile devices. Nine years later, Hov's blueprint has become a common practice in the music industry and beyond.