Let's fess up: the streets are basically for losers. Creatively speaking, the streets are so predictable these days that media companies are making hit TV shows about them. The best rapper alive is hip to this.

Early on "Kingdom Come," Jay-Z [ tickets ] (a.k.a. Jay-Hova, in that he "came before all the others") argues for the corporate space as today's live metaphor. And he does this in a voice that's becoming the most precise musical instrument of our time. For better or worse, "Kingdom Come" has the capacity to clean up the streets harder than Guiliani with the PATRIOT Act.

At its regular best, the collection plays as the (long-awaited) hip-hop version of "The Office," with petty squabbling played out this time as beefs with Damon Dash and Cam'ron's Dipset clique. (On "Lost Ones" he raps--more brilliantly than print media can convey--"I heard muhf----s sayin' they made Hov/made Hov say okay, so, make another Hov.") Yet, as Jay reminds us regularly, he's no mere cubicle guy. He's a hustling pioneer. So heavy in the game that he doesn’t have to carry a gun any more. And that's gangsta, right?

The matter of how cool it is to be straight girds every lyric of wealth, women, sports and philosophy. In small pockets, the actual uncoolness of the subject can drive the listener to distraction, and "Kingdome Come" reminds of Huey Lewis’ "Hip to be Square." (If I wanna know Hova's credit rating, I'll subscribe to Bloomberg's.) Yet Jay-Z's God-size persona, ridiculously jazzy flow and long-money beats make for the rare thirtysomething MC classic.