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“Are you famous?” An older woman politely asks Jay-Z as he sits beside her on the subway. The New York rapper sporting a Basquiat t-shirt and a slight smile confirms, “Yes… Not very famous, you don’t know me. But I’ll get there someday.” The two continue their conversation as Jay-Z tells her he makes music and is heading towards the Brooklyn Arena to perform for the ninth time.

The conversation highlights something about Jay-Z that doesn’t get brought up enough. The rap mogul, billionaire, and hit-maker, at the centre of all of his success, has always remained relatively humble. He doesn’t get offended when the woman doesn’t recognise him, and further along in his career, when he’s been interviewed, the rapper has been open to having honest conversations, laughing at himself, and generally being grounded.

Of course, when you listen to Jay-Z’s music, you would be forgiven for thinking he might not be the most humble man on the planet. The rapper has a braggadocious way about him, constantly talking about things like riches, accolades and his stance in the world of hip-hop: “I said no to the Super Bowl, you need me, I don’t need you.”

As rap progresses and the genre that allows artists to say a lot in a short amount of time continues to get more popular, it’s safe to say that rappers everywhere are talking about a variety of subjects. Lyrics cover a breadth of different themes, such as mental health, love, lust, and political matters. 

That being said, on the East Coast rap scene in the ‘90s, a lot of the music that was being made centred around living a certain type of lifestyle. Many common themes in modern hip-hop were blown up out of proportion as people spoke about watches, money, houses, cars, and sex. No one was better at this than Jay-Z, who had a unique way with words, excellent vocal tone, and an undeniably infectious cadence.

In order to rap about these subject matters in a way that people found believable, it was important for Jay-Z to have a big ego. On one of his most recent albums, 4:44, Jay-Z grew relatively reflective, and in the song, ‘Bam’ acknowledged his ego, which was necessary for him to be successful. It’s one thing being nice to a woman on the subway, but if you were going to make it as an East Coast rapper, you had to genuinely believe that you were one of the best.

“The song ‘Bam’ with Damian Marley, it’s just jammin’, it’s just like the song. But it’s secretly Shawn Carter saying, ‘Man, you need a bit of ego’,” he said, “It was because of me and the things that I’ve done, this is Jay-Z saying you needed a bit of ego for us to arrive at this point.”