How Salisbury Cathedral inspired a Jay-Z album
Salisbury Cathedral, an imposing, gothic Anglican church looming tall in the southwestern English city of Salisbury, is home to one of the Anglosphere’s most important historical documents. But, strangely, this grand, religious building in Wiltshire also plays a part in the history of modern hip-hop.
Jay-Z visited Salisbury Cathedral in 2013, and he did so because of its role within an album he’d just released during the summer of that year. Magna Carta… Holy Grail, Jay’s twelfth album, was at least partly inspired by the important historical document that’s held at the cathedral. The building is home to one of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta.
Issued in 1215, the Magna Carta was the first ever document to declare that a king and his government are not above the law. It was, in essence, the first written constitution in European history and it remains an important touchstone in especially British and American legal cultures today.
But it’s not just legal scholars who are fascinated by the Magna Carta, as it serves as a broader symbol of liberty. That is why Jay-Z took such an interest in the document, and it’s why he felt compelled to visit Salisbury Cathedral to see it.
Jay reportedly spent an hour at the cathedral when he came to visit, spending time with the young members of the choir there. He also met with the dean of the cathedral, Reverend June Osborne, who later described Jay as “a delightful guest.”
The people running Salisbury Cathedral didn’t let this visit of an A-list celebrity go to waste. They put an artwork of Jay’s album on display beside their copy of the Magna Carta, thus making visitors aware of their church’s connection to the rapper.
The album itself was met with a decidedly a mixed reaction. While it debuted at number one in America and sold a lot of copies, the critics were split. Some felt its main theme was actually a little bit weak, yet it still received multiple Grammy nominations.
The only Grammy that the album won, in the end, was in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category for the song ‘Holy Grail,’ which featured Justin Timberlake. The religious overtones of a song referencing the Holy Grail are fairly obvious, but Jay, as he explained on The Breakfast Club radio show, was using it as a metaphor for fame.
“It’s about the way fame is fleeting, you know,” he said. “‘The Holy Grail,’ meaning you chase this thing and these bright lights and these cameras and you look back and you want everything and you end up with nothing. So at some point you have to stop yourself.”