Halfway through his Coachella-closing set, Kendrick Lamar started levitating. First, the Compton rapper retreated into a sheer box, sitting hunched over to recite “LUST.,” a slow creep from his just-released album DAMN. Then, verse by verse, the floor started to move skyward. By the song’s end, he was sitting on top of a giant cube; then he stood up and launched into a furious performance of “Money Trees.” The image—Kendrick alone on a dark, glowing box, surrounded by a sea of people, by darkness, by the desert—was impossible to shake, a visual reminder that he is, for the moment, peerless.

All told, Kendrick’s first turn headlining Coachella was something of a victory lap. He’s at the point in his career where songs from a three-day-old album can send a sea of arms flailing, where tracks as hard as “DNA.” or as heartfelt as “GOD.” inspire remarkably adept sing-alongs, where recent single “HUMBLE.” can raucously cap off a main set like a tried-and-true greatest hit. But there was more than DAMN. for Kendrick to celebrate. He circled back to 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly for the massive “Alright” and the slinking “King Kunta,” and even tapped last year’s untitled unmastered. for “untitled 07 | 2014-2016,” better known as “levitate,” which lived up to its promise as a sneering, swaggering, sprawling eight-minute odyssey. Old favorites like “m.A.A.d. City,” “Backseat Freestyle,” and the “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” remix underscored the fact that the man’s reign atop hip-hop’s critical food chain has now stretched out to half a decade.

He didn’t do it completely alone. Bold name guest rappers were one of the weekend’s prevailing themes, and Kendrick called up his TDE labelmate Schoolboy Q for a Kanye-less rendition of “THat Part,” as well as Travis Scott, for the Kendrick-featuring “Goosebumps.” But the most surprising guest appearance came courtesy of Future, who was given carte blanche to play his solo hit “Mask Off,” which will be entirely unavoidable this summer. At the end of the song, the rappers were visibly ecstatic to be sharing the stage with one another. It was, as the kids here say, a movie.