Drake had to fight to keep Jay Z collaboration

Drake had to work up "the nerve" to ask Jay Z if he could keep their new collaboration Pound Cake for himself after the hip-hop mogul almost included it on his latest album Magna Carta... Holy Grail.

The Started From the Bottom hitmaker reveals he heard Jay Z's raw lyrics while working in the studio with his superstar wife Beyonce, and he immediately came up with beat ideas for the track.

Drake says, "I had the nerve to ask Jay if I could not only get that song from him, but if I could get the a capella because I had an idea for it. He sent me the two verses a capella - he told me, 'I never do this.'"

The 26 year old initially took the verses to his producer pal Noah '40' Shebib, but it was another beatmaker, Boi-1da, who came up with the winning sound - and it was then that Jay Z almost laid claim to the finished song.

Drake adds, "The beat brought the Jay verses to life. I sent the song back to Jay - and that was when it almost became a Jay Z song. But he's such a good guy, he was like, 'I gave you my word.' I don't know what I'd do without that guy sometimes, he's just full of gems and advice."

The track now features as part of the closing outro on Drake's new release, Nothing Was the Same.