Entertainment

'The Late Show's First Musical Guest Is...

by Kadeen Griffiths

It truly seems like Stephen Colbert is doing his best to start his Late Show tenure off with a bang. The first piece of amazing news was that George Clooney will be The Late Show With Stephen Colbert 's first guest, and now we have even more of a good reason to tune in to that first broadcast. In case the headline didn't already tip you off, Kendrick Lamar will be The Late Show's first musical guest, and he's a perfect choice for a host that spent such a long time in character as a faux political pundit. After all, you only need to listen to Lamar's raps for about five seconds to realize that he is unafraid to get political and make a lot of social commentary in his music, which is probably why Colbert sought him out.

"My last musical guest [on The Colbert Report] was Kendrick Lamar, and I would love for him to be my first musical guest. In fact he will be my first musical guest," Colbert said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, according to TheWrap. What makes Lamar so special that he gets the incredible honor of closing out The Colbert Report and ushering in the new Late Show? Again, just listen to his music for five seconds, and you'll get the gist. He is more than just the rapper that Taylor Swift loves so much that she let him remix "Bad Blood" for her music video. He is an entertainer, an educator, and an all around amazing person.

Take the BET Awards, for example. Lamar performed at the 2015 BET Awards with a politically charged performance of "Alright." He had a set littered with graffitied police cars, and screamed out, "we hate popo, wanna kill us dead in the street for sure, I'm at the preachers door," before the stage went black except for the American flag. The entire performance did wonders to raise more awareness of the issue of the shooting of unarmed black men and women by police officers across the country, a list of names that seems to be getting higher and higher every day. And that's just one example of the many times that Lamar has used his raps to make some sort of social commentary.

On top of that, he's won two Grammys, so I would mark my DVR for that alone. However, between Clooney and Lamar, my excitement for Colbert's first episode of The Late Show has reached an all-time high. Just one of those people would be enough for me to tune in, but all of them together promises an episode that will be equal parts entertaining, educational, and unforgettable. If Colbert is in any way nervous that his tenure as the host of the Late Show won't go well, then he should really stomp down on those pesky nerves from now, because he's got all the ingredients he needs for one tasty broadcast. OK, maybe I took that analogy a little too far, but I think you get my point. Is it Sept. 8 yet?