Jay-Z: Kanye wanted 'Magna Carta' songs for 'Throne'

Jay-Z has confessed hat some of his new solo material was coveted by a close buddy: Kanye West.

According to NME, Jay-Z told BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe — in an interview that will air in four parts this week, between Monday and Thursday — that while he and West were collaborating on 2011's Watch The Throne, West expressed interest in Holy Grail and Ocean, two songs that wound up on Jay-Z's new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail.

Jay-Z says that he and West had both planned to do solo albums after making Throne. "Soon as I thought we had wrapped up Watch The Throne, I made two records," the previously mentioned tunes. Then he played them for West. "And he was like, 'No, those have to go on Watch The Throne.' "

The two then spent "four days literally arguing," with Jay-Z explaining that he felt the songs were more appropriate for his own upcoming solo project. While things never got nasty between the buddies, Jay-Z allows that "there was some pushing but not between us, just everyone else got a little excited."

A cooler head — Jay-Z's — eventually prevailed, and the songs can now be heard on Magna Carta.