“I’m not very famous, you don’t know me. But I’ll get there some day.” Aw, Jay-Z. How terribly cute and mock-humble of you. When Jay Z took the subway to his show at the new Barclays Centre in Brooklyn recently, he had an adorable little chat with 67 year-old Ellen Grossman, who couldn’t help but ask the man with the massive entourage if he was famous. And so the endearing exchange commenced.

“My name is Jay, what’s yours?” he asked and shook Ellen’s hand as she asked what he does. “I make music,” came the reply and she asked “Did you just do a performance?” Jay Z then explains that he’s on his way to the last of eight shows at the newly built arena. “fabulous,” comes Ellen’s response, before telling him she’s “proud” of him for taking the subway. It’s enough to make us weep, here at Contact, let us tell ya. The undisputed of king of hip-hop chatting to an unsuspecting old lady on the subway? It’s the stuff that YouTube was invented for! Heart-warming stuff.

The best bit of the video, though, comes at the end. Ellen asks ‘Jay’ to tell her his name again, so that she doesn’t forget it. “Jay, Jay Z,” comes his answer. Ellen throws her head back and laughs. “Oh, Jay Z? I know about Jay Z!” See! We KNEW there wasn’t a soul in New York City who hadn’t heard of Jay Z. That Ellen’s one cool cat. 

Watch the exchange for yourselves...