--- title: Lupita Nyong'o On What Being Mentioned in a Jay Z Song Is Like description: Lupita Nyong'o revealed on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' how she really felt after finding out that Jay Z has mentioned her on his song, "We Made It." canonical: https://time.com/4504569/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-22T17:03:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:53.711Z og:title: Lupita Nyong'o Had the Best Reaction to Being in a Jay Z Song og:description: "I felt like the coolest kid ever" og:url: https://time.com/4504569/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8088a4bc7e182802/6988a72dcf40a8f660c44eac/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Premiere Of Disney's "Queen Of Katwe" - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lupita Nyong'o Had the Best Reaction to Being in a Jay Z Song twitter:description: "I felt like the coolest kid ever" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8088a4bc7e182802/6988a72dcf40a8f660c44eac/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Lupita Nyong'o's Amazing Reaction to Being Mentioned in a Jay Z Song > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 22, 2016 5:03 PM UTC  Lupita Nyong'o arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of Disney's "Queen Of Katwe" held at the El Capitan Theatre on September 20, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic) Lupita Nyong'o arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of Disney's "Queen Of Katwe" held at the El Capitan Theatre on September 20, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic) Michael Tran—FilmMagic  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 22, 2016 5:03 PM UTC [Lupita Nyong’o](http://time.com/4502780/lupita-nyongo-maz-kanata-star-wars-episode-viii/) might be an [Oscar winner](http://time.com/4239297/best-oscars-speeches/) and one of the most talented actresses of her generation, but that doesn’t mean that she’s above getting star struck. The _Queen of Katwe_ actress told [Jimmy Kimmel on _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_](http://time.com/4473441/jimmy-kimmel-matt-damon-feud-history-timeline/) on Wednesday that she “felt like the coolest kid ever” upon finding out that Jay Z name checked her on his song, “[We Made It.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaLIzQJLBz0)” Apparently her little brother told her the big news and had to send her a link to the song before she would believe it. “I was like, ‘What are you on about?’ and he sent me the link, and then I heard it!” Nyong’o said. “I heard, ‘I’m on my Lupita Nyong’o’ and I was like, ‘what!’” Later, when Nyong’o met Hov in real life at the 2015 Oscars, he greeted her by saying, “I did good, right?” to which she replied, “You did so good!” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4504569/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4504569/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song/"},"headline":"Watch Lupita Nyong'o's Amazing Reaction to Being Mentioned in a Jay Z Song","datePublished":"2016-09-22T17:03:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:53.711Z","description":"\"I felt like the coolest kid ever\"","url":"https://time.com/4504569/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","Jay-z","entertainment","Lupita Nyong'o","Jimmy Kimmel","celebrity","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8088a4bc7e182802/6988a72dcf40a8f660c44eac/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8088a4bc7e182802/6988a72dcf40a8f660c44eac/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Premiere Of Disney's \"Queen Of Katwe\" - Arrivals","caption":"Premiere Of Disney's \"Queen Of Katwe\" - Arrivals","creditText":"Michael Tran—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4504569/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song/","name":"Watch Lupita Nyong'o's Amazing Reaction to Being Mentioned in a Jay Z Song"}}]}] ```