"Holy Grail" is a song by American hip hop artist Jay Z from his twelfth studio album Magna Carta Holy Grail. It features vocals from American singer Justin Timberlake and serves as the album's first single. It was produced by The-Dream, Timbaland and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, with additional production from No ID and contains elements of Nirvana's 1991 hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Following the release of the album, the song charted in many regions, entering at number eight and reaching number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as charting at number seven on the UK Singles Chart. The song received mixed reviews from music critics.

"Holy Grail" won the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 56th Grammy Awards. In 2014, Billboard placed it at number 25 on their list of Top 100 Hot Rap Songs of all time.

Recording and composition

"Holy Grail", along with another track from Magna Carta... Holy Grail called "Oceans" were recorded in 2011 during the recording sessions for Jay Z's collaborative album with Kanye West, Watch the Throne. West wanted the two songs to appear on Watch the Throne, but Jay Z chose to keep them for his upcoming studio album and they were replaced with "No Church in the Wild" and "Made in America". The early version of the instrumental was created in 2011 by The-Dream. When the recording sessions for MCHG started, Timbaland together with fellow producer J-Roc rearranged it to create the final track.

The Holy Grail is a dish, plate, stone, or cup that is part of an important theme of Arthurian literature. According to legend, it has special powers, and is designed to provide happiness, eternal youth and food in infinite abundance.

A grail, wondrous but not explicitly holy, first appears in Perceval le Gallois, an unfinished romance by Chrétien de Troyes. It is a processional salver used to serve at a feast. Chrétien's story attracted many continuators, translators and interpreters in the later 12th and early 13th centuries, including Wolfram von Eschenbach, who perceived the grail as a great precious stone that fell from the sky. The Grail legend became interwoven with legends of the Holy Chalice. The connection with Joseph of Arimathea and with vessels associated with the Last Supper and crucifixion of Jesus dates from Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (late 12th century) in which Joseph receives the Grail from an apparition of Jesus and sends it with his followers to Great Britain. Building upon this theme, later writers recounted how Joseph used the Grail to catch Christ's blood while interring him and how he founded a line of guardians to keep it safe in Britain. The legend may combine Christian lore with a Celtic myth of a cauldron endowed with special powers.

Holy Grail is an American heavy-metal band, founded in Pasadena, California, in 2008.

History

Holy Grail was formed in 2008 as Sorcerer by singer James Paul Luna, guitarist James J. LaRue and drummer Tyler Meahl, all ex-members of White Wizzard. They recruited bassist Eric Harris (formerly of Skeletonwitch) and guitarist Eli Santana to complete the lineup. Before Holy Grail recorded their first extended play, bassist Blake Mount replaced Harris.

In 2009, the band released their first EP, Improper Burial, on Prosthetic Records. They went on to release their first full-length album, Crisis in Utopia, in 2010, to critical acclaim. The cover art for Crisis in Utopia was created by Andrei Bouzikov.

The band toured heavily from 2009 to 2012 in support of their first album. In November 2009, they supported 3 Inches of Blood and Saviours on a North American tour. In April 2010, they supported Amon Amarth on their North American tour. In June, they performed at the UK's Download Festival. In July 2010, bassist Jessie Sanchez took Blake Mount's place in the band; in October of that year, Mount returned to the band and Sanchez left. In August, the band performed at Germany's Wacken Open Air Festival. They then began their third North American tour, supporting Exodus.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 British surreal comedy film written and performed by the comedy group of Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin), and directed by Gilliam and Jones. It was conceived during the hiatus between the third and fourth series of their popular BBC television programme Monty Python's Flying Circus.

In contrast to the group's first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, a compilation of sketches from the first two television series, Holy Grail is composed of original material. It parodies the legend of King Arthur's quest to find the Holy Grail. Idle used the film as the basis for the 2005 Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail grossed the most of any British film exhibited in the U.S. in 1975. The film received a 97% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus: "a cult classic as gut-bustingly hilarious as it is blithely ridiculous". In the US, the film was selected as the second best comedy of all time in the ABC special Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time; in the UK, readers of Total Film magazine ranked the film the fifth greatest comedy film of all time, and a similar poll of Channel 4 viewers placed the film sixth (2000).