Is Kendrick Lamar About to Reinvent the Super Bowl Halftime Show?

Get Kendrick on a nationally televised platform and the result isn’t just a cool medley with occasional pyrotechnics; you’re typically in for an uber-conceptual three-act play. That aforementioned 2016 Grammy performance used To Pimp a Butterfly’s “Blacker the Berry” and “Alright” for a meditation on the long lineage of cultural and artistic expression back through our roots, or something to that effect. But then Kenny blew himself out of the water two years later during his Damn. era, opening the 2018 Grammys telecast with what still might be his best clip to date, not to mention one of the best Grammy performances of the last 10 years.

Backed by what looks like about two dozen synchronized dancers, plus cameos from U2 and in-person narration cutaways to Dave Chappelle, Kendrick somehow fits “XXX.,” “Feel.,” “DNA.,” “New Freezer” and “King’s Dead” into a coherent statement on being Black in America, all while finding time to wink at the audience while doing so—and most importantly just put on a set that’s simply cool as fuck. Rapping lyrics from a Rich Tha Kid collab in a sort of duet with a woman who’s banging on a big taiko drum? Soldiers falling out from invisible assassinations as he drops one loaded lyric after another about how he won’t conform to the “title y’all want me under”? That was real Fuck, just give him the awards already energy; I couldn’t even be mad when they did just that and he swept Jigga in all the 4:44 vs Damn. face-offs.

Now, seven years later, there’s no doubt in my mind we’re about to see the IMAX version. That was Inception, now it’s time for Oppenheimer. Kendrick’s runtime is doubled, his money is longer, and, as anyone who attended the Mr. Morale tour knows, his showmanship powers have only grown. And yes, to circle back to the elephant in the room: His blood pressure is still skyrocketing off a wartime win in an exemplary year that reminded anyone who forgot of why he’s not to be fucked with. Now he’s got an audience of 100 million viewers to put one big exclamation point on the end of that statement.

Maybe I’m gassing a little, but that’s just where I’m at with it. Get your jokes off about him “needing” SZA to pad the duration of the show out if you want. Anyone who’s been paying close attention for the last 10 years—and doesn’t have an owl in their bio—knows that whatever he and Dave Free have up their sleeves is going to be way more audacious than any guest. Can’t wait.