Hip Hop legends may be more often associated with a glass of Cristal than simple fresh water, but Jay Z is determined to show that he has a humanitarian heart.

The musician this week met with UN secretary general Kofi Annan as part of a mission to bring clean water to the world's thirsty.

In what has been described as a "groundbreaking" collaboration, Jay Z has joined up the UN in an effort to raise awareness about the global water crisis and with the immediate goal of purchasing 1,000 pumps to bring clean water to some of the world's poor.

Jay Z first realised water was such a pertinent global issue after touring African nations and realising the problems face by many people living outside the luxury of the hip hop elite.

More than 4,500 children die every year from preventable diseases caused by unsanitary conditions and a lack of safe drinking water and Jay Z explained that when he heard the statistics, he had to help out.

"As I started looking around and looking at ways that I could become helpful, it started at the first thing -- water, something as simple as water," he said at U.N. headquarters. "It took very little, very little to see these numbers."

After announcing his partnership with the UN, Jay Z will embark on a tour of some of the worst hit countries, meeting some of the one billion people that don't have access to clean water during the day and performing at night. The tour will be screened as a documentary on MTV. Diary of Jay Z: Water for Life will be aired on November 24.

MTV reaches 400 million households and water campaigners hope the exposure gained by the 36-year-old's efforts will help promote the cause. Jay Z explained that he has also asked others in the Hip Hop world to help.

"It's a huge responsibility, and humbling at the same time," Jay said, after the conference. "I wanted to go to these countries to just tour and play music. Of course, I can't go to any place without touching the culture and seeing what's going on. When you start getting down to Africa and places like that, you see that billions of people don't have access to water."

It's a basic thing to us," Jay said. "If you bring awareness to other young people, they're gonna see [that] and want to be involved. I'm not a politician — I'm just a regular person with a heart. If you see a problem like that and do nothing about it, there's something wrong with you."