Everyone thought it might happen, but equally, everyone hoped it wouldn’t. But while Baz Luhrmann has clearly butchered the ‘great American novel’ with his glitzy, over-the-top cinematic adaptation, the soundtrack might still represent a gem.

Lurhmann hadn’t met rapper Jay-Z before, and so it took the film’s star. Leonardo Dicaprio to hook the pair up. "Leo said, 'Hey, Jay's up at the Mercer [Hotel] -- let's go see him,'" Luhrmann remembers in an interview. "So we get there, and he's in a small suite with a producer, a recording deck about the size of a coffee table and a microphone with one of those vocal guards on it. He says, 'Gimme a second,' and then he does the line about 'lies on the lips of a priest' from 'No Church in the Wild.'" Lurhmann said he and DiCaprio spent the rest of the evening at the Mercer. "And eventually we start talking about the movie," the director continued. "I told him I wanted the audience to experience 'Gatsby' not nostalgically but more in the moment. And just as I was about to say, 'I wonder if you'd be interested...,' he said, 'We've got to do it.' It's been a true partnership ever since."

The film has been poorly reviewed so far, garnering a poor 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics claiming the film is empty, and despite the all-star cast, lacks anything beneath the undeniable style it exhibits.

Jay ZJay-Z looking suave at the premiere of Great Gatsby