Serena Williams crip walking during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show was more than just a celebration of their shared roots in Compton, California. The retired tennis great’s cameo while Lamar was performing “Not Like Us,” his Grammy-winning Drake diss track, has layers to it.
As Harper’s Bazaar pointed out, Lamar references Williams in the lyrics of the song, rapping, “From Alondra down to Central, better not speak on Serena.” Then there’s the matter of Williams and Drake’s romantic history.
It’s been almost a decade since Williams and Drake sparked dating rumors. In August 2015, the rapper had been attending her tennis matches regularly, and TMZ ran photos of them making out at a dinner in Cincinnati.
By October 2015, their romance had ended though. Us Weekly reported that Williams had moved onto her now-husband Alexis Ohanian. A source dismissed Williams and Drake’s relationship as well, saying it had just been a “flirty friendship.”
Williams said nothing about Drake after the performance, but she did post on X, formerly known as Twitter, about her cameo. “Let’s go Super Bowl halftime??! I died a little!” she wrote.
In a second clip, she said, “Man, I did not crip walk like that at Wimbledon. Oooh, I would’ve been fined! It was all love.”
Earlier in the night, she made headlines for defending Taylor Swift when the “Fortnight” singer was booed on the Jumbotron.
Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance contained far more than just some subtle jabs at Drake, with whom he has a longstanding feud. The rapper did a medley of hits, including “wacced out murals,” “Bodies,” “squabble up,” “HUMBLE.,” “DNA.,” “luther,” “All the Stars,” and “tv off.” SZA and Samuel L. Jackson were part of the history-making performance. Lamar is the first solo rapper to headline the big show. Watch clips of his performance here.
